Have you ever seen a racehorse bolt from the track and run 1.6 miles through traffic in a total of three different counties?
Well, that was the case this past Friday near Laurel Park in Maryland when Bullet Catcher, a gelded four-year-old went AWOL after having dumped his rider following a morning work.
Former jockey Mark Rosenthal, who is also Bullet Catcher's owner, offered an entertaining yet fully accurate quote after his gelding seemed to stick to the major routes.
“We’re not really sure why he stuck to the road so closely, or how he happened to hit all the lights and make the right turns,” Rosenthal said. “He’s a lucky horse.”
A report by the Baltimore Sun explains that the entire fiasco --- from when the rider was dumped to when the gelding was returned to his stall --- took about 20 minutes.
Veteran trainer Charles 'Snake' Frock, one of the individuals that helped coral Bullet Catcher, was quoted as saying, “I have never seen anything like it, and I have been at the racetrack for more than 50 years.”
Bullet Catcher suffered some abrasions to the bottom of his feet due to running on the hard surfaces, but did not sustain any major injuries.
The Baltimore Sun report explains that Bullet Catcher has one win and three on-the-board finishes from his six-race career. Despite the gelding's career numbers, Abel Castellano, the leader rider at the track in 2012 who helped corral Bullet Catcher, quipped “He's definitely the grand champion of running on hard surfaces."
(With files from the Baltimore Sun)