Aaron Merriman, the leading driver at Northfield Park and in North America, was injured in a multi-horse incident Friday afternoon at The Meadows
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Merriman was piloting Sound Dragin, who was making a first over move, but made a break and fell near the three-quarter pole in the 11th race. In a sickening chain reaction, Merriman was thrown to the ground, and three horses in the eight-horse field could not clear the fallen pair. The drivers of those horses, Ray Paver (aboard Boat King), Tony Hall (I Like It Hot) and Kyle Bolon (Abs Rayno Hall), also were spun from their sulkies.
“Aaron went down, and we were just on top of each other,” Bolon said. “There was nothing anyone could really do [to avoid it].”
Merriman, who was conscious and alert while attended by paramedics, was transported to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh and is believed to have suffered a broken wrist. He is off all drives at Northfield this weekend and will be out indefinitely.
Although walking under his own power, Paver was transported to Canonsburg Hospital for examination. Hall and Bolon suffered no serious injuries and were able to complete their driving assignments. All four horses walked from the track with no apparent serious injuries.
Merriman, a 31-year-old native of Macedonia, Ohio who notched his 4,000th career victory last December, drives regularly at both The Meadows and Northfield Park. As of Friday morning, he had compiled 354 wins this year. In Friday’s eighth race, just three races before the accident, he won in spectacular fashion, guiding Headbutt Harley to a 35-1 upset victory in a $20,000 Pennsylvania Stallion Series stake.
Trot Insider will provide more information as it becomes available.
(With files from Northfield Park & The Meadows)