Driver Mike Forte was injured in a five-horse pile-up in the seventh race on Thursday at Monticello Raceway.

After lying motionless on the track for a while and being attended to there Forte was eventually taken to the emergency room at Catskill Regional Medical Center in nearby Harris, NY, and from initial reports a short time after the accident an emergency room staffer said Forte was alert and was being taken for a CAT-scan.

The accident happened as the field headed to the three-eighths pole. Forte’s pacer, A And Gs Flirt, was tucked in tightly behind the pacesetter, J Grayson, driven by Billy Parker, Jr. and as the field was halfway around the turn Parker’s horse jumped a shadow and fell to his knees. His sulky wheel was hooked by Forte’s wheel. Parker was thrown to the ground and Forte’s horse fell over Parker’s sulky which catapulted Forte into the air and that started a chain reaction. When Forte landed he was run over by the trailing horses

Chuck Poynton, Kyle DiBendetto and Jimmy Marohn, Sr. were also unseated and ended-up under fallen horses as a result of the pile-up but fortunately they, and Parker, all walked away under their own power. The extent their injuries is not known at press time, though none appeared to be seriously hurt. DiBendetto even drove later on the card.

Amazingly all the horses involved were unhurt, though two ran loose and had to be captured.

Three horses finished and the race was declared ‘official’ by the judges.

(Monticello Raceway)