Rough Flight for British Horses; One Suffers Cut Head

A plane from London to Miami carrying 18 horses, 15 of them scheduled to run Saturday in the Breeders’ Cup, apparently hit heavy turbulence and dropped an estimated 500 feet in a few seconds late Monday, but there were no serious injuries.

The incident occurred about six hours into the eight-hour flight.

Red Slippers, scheduled to run in a non-Breeders’ Cup stake at Gulfstream Park this weekend, suffered a head gash. Marling, entered in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, was eating poorly Tuesday and a London bookmaker changed his odds from 6-1 to 8-1 because of the incident.

Other horses aboard included Selkirk, Rodrigo De Triano, Dr Devious, Sheikh Albadou and Zoman.

“It was the worst flight I have ever been on,” said handler Nick Vaughan. “The crates lifted right off the ground. I was two from the back and the horse in the crate in the back looked like he was coming right up and over. It was literally terrifying.”