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Jockey Chantal Sutherland had planned on riding at Monmouth Park for the first time this summer, but when the Jersey Shore track opened on Saturday, Sutherland was in her South Florida home recovering from surgery for an injury she said was “totally avoidable.”
Sutherland rode Joe Orseno-trainer Haruki to a fourth-place finish at 24-1 odds in the day’s final race, the English Channel Stakes, but as the horses were pulling up, she said geese wandering across the turf course spooked her mount.
“I saw them before the horse did, and I grabbed the horse to stop him,” she said. “Then he saw them and put the brakes on and ducked to his right, so I slingshotted off the horse.
“I put my arm out and broke the humerus bone completely off from my shoulder,” she said. “At the time it happened, I didn’t feel anything, so when I got up, everyone started screaming. Edgar Perez came to me and helped me with my helmet. I looked down because I thought I broke my collarbone, but then found my left arm was just dangling.
“When I hit the ground, my left arm snapped at the base of my shoulder and it went up into my collarbone.”
Sutherland said a trainer stabled in one of the long tent-like barns on the clubhouse turn feeds the fowl during the last break during morning training and again late in the day. The geese live in the infield lake and cross the racetracks to get fed, she said.
“It’s not a zoo. It’s not a farm – it’s a racetrack,” said Sutherland, adding that other riders have complained to track officials about the geese. “We have to be vigilant and mindful of how risky our jobs are.”
William Badgett, executive director of Florida racing operations for track owner The Stronach Group, responded to a text message asking about the incident, saying “not true.” When asked for specifics, he declined to comment further.
Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Marc Lee Ebersberger performed surgery on the injured shoulder May 8 at AHCA Florida Aventura Hospital.
“Surgery went well,” Sutherland said. “They went in and did work on my shoulder and then pulled back the humerus out of my armpit and reattached it with a plate into my shoulder.”
Sutherland, 47, said additional X-rays will be taken May 23 to determine the progress. She said she will need between four to six weeks for the bone to heal.
The Winnipeg, Canada, native and two-time Sovereign Award winner is getting infrared and hyperbaric chamber treatment to speed the recovery, but thinks it will be 2 1/2 to three months before she is 100 percent and able to resume riding.
“I was really excited to be going to Monmouth,” Sutherland said. “Jim Riccio was going to be my agent, and Jorge Delgado had a lot of horses for me to ride. I was hoping to ride also for Claudio Gonzalez.”
Sutherland has enjoyed a resurgence since moving her tack to South Florida the last few years. In 2021, she won 83 races from 597 mounts and earnings of nearly $2.6 million, her best year since 2011, when she was regular rider in Southern California for Bob Baffert-trained, multiple Grade 1 winner Game On Dude.
So far in 2023, she’s won 19 races from 146 mounts and earnings of $682,070.
