2 Horses Die; Track Calls It ‘Freak Thing’

CHICAGO —  Two horses running in a harness race at Maywood Park collapsed and died in what a track spokesman called “a freak thing.”

Fredericton N, the No. 6 horse given 7-to-1 odds, went down just past the quarter-mile pole during the eighth race Monday night.

Then, just past the turn for home, Judge for Yourself, the No. 2 horse, swerved off the track, crashed through a rail and died on the spectator apron. Driver Jim Knowlton fell from the sulky before it broke through the rail.

Both horses were dead when track veterinary aides reached them.

Maywood spokesman Tony Rau said preliminary examinations indicated that Judge for Yourself, a 4-year-old gelding owned by William R. Thomas of Belvidere, Ill., died of internal injuries.

Fredericton N, an 8-year-old gelding, was owned by James Kuhn, Charles Baker and Newton Pearson of Illinois. He was driven and trained by Baker.

Autopsies were scheduled at the University of Illinois equine center in Champaign to determine the official causes of death.

Judge for Yourself, given 9-to-2 odds, was trailing several horses when he left the track, Rau said. No one among the crowd of 3,534 was in the area where the horse broke the rail, the spokesman said.

The deaths were “a freak thing,” Rau said.

“A preliminary investigation by state stewards showed no irregular betting patterns,” he said.

Smoking Fella N was the winner of the eighth race and paid $19.80, $12.20 and $7.60. Tiffany Erin returned $11 and $10.60. The show horse, Stormin Norm, paid $17.60.