Autopsies Planned on Two Chicago Harness Horses

Autopsies are planned on two horses that died while running a harness race at Maywood Park, a track spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Preliminary examinations indicate that Fredericton N. died of a heart attack and that a common condition called “choking down” (when the animal chokes on blood pumped from its heart into its lungs) killed the other pacer, Judge For Yourself, according to spokeswoman Eleanor Flavin.

Both horses collapsed during the eighth race Monday night and were dead by the time track veterinary aides reached them.

Fredericton N., a 7-1 shot, went down just past the quarter-mile pole during the race.

Then, just past the turn for home, Judge for Yourself, off at 9-2, swerved off the track, crashed through a rail and died on the spectator apron. Driver Jim Knowlton, who fell from the sulky before it broke through the rail, was uninjured.