Driver George Brennan returned to the race bike on Monday (Jan. 7), three days after a visit to the hospital due to an on-track accident.
On Monday morning, Brennan told harnessracing.com that he is fully recovered from a race spill that occurred Friday night (Jan. 4) at the Meadowlands Racetrack. He did state, though, that he suffered some minor bruising. Brennan was dumped to the track when he and driver Andy Miller hooked sulky wheels while crossing the wire in the ‘Big M’s ninth race on Friday.
“Right at the wire we hooked wheels and I got flipped out,” said Brennan, who was transported to a local hospital and released at roughly 4 a.m. on Saturday. “It could have been a lot worse.”
Brennan – who was driving at the Meadowlands for the first time since Hambletonian Day last August while his home track of Yonkers Raceway was taking a break from racing – was behind Better Call Saul when he and Miller, who was driving Star Studded Cast, came together at the wire near the back of the field. Brennan said he lost consciousness briefly but recovered quickly.
“I think I was out for just a few seconds,” he said. “I’m thinking I banged my head, just enough to jar my memory of what happened. I remember getting up and hearing announcer Ken Warkentin say, ‘George Brennan is up.’ And then I heard him say, ‘there’s a loose horse on the track.’
“I thought, ‘Holy crap, is that horse coming at me?” he added with a laugh.
Brennan said his injuries were all on his left side.
“I must have been kicked out on my left side,” said Brennan. “I must have twisted my left leg because my left foot and left knee really hurt. I also have some abrasions on the left side of my face and my helmet is marked up on the left side. They kept me at the hospital and did a CAT scan on me and everything was clear. I got home about five in the morning.”
Brennan, who early in 2018 won his 10,000th career race, had a third and four off-the-board finishes in his five drives Friday at the Meadowlands. He missed his last drive on Friday night and took himself off his handful of mounts on Saturday night.
“I really could have driven Saturday night if I wanted to, but I elected not to,” said Brennan, who said he heard from several of his peers over the weekend, including a couple of times from Miller. “I decided to rest my body.”
Brennan was back in the sulky when Yonkers resumed racing Monday night. He drove in 11 of the 12 races that the track carded and recorded a pair of wins.
Brennan’s wife Tracie was able to take advantage of having her husband home for a few days.
“I just finished some grocery shopping,” Brennan said with a laugh. “It was the first time I was out of the house since I got home from the hospital.”
(Harnessracing.com)