Driver Tony Morgan grabs loose horse during race atYonkers.

On April 7, harness racing driver Tony Morgan towed a horse for half a race at Yonkers Raceway after the horse's driver was thrown from the sulky during an accident. The Youtube link contains the entire race, which shows the accident as the horses come around the second turn, plus two angles of Morgan pulling the horse across the finish line at the end while driving his horse.

Tony Morgan wasn't expecting to drive Black Cat Bone in Saturday's (April 7) George Morton Levy Memorial division at Yonkers Raceway, but after the pacer was involved in an accident that unseated Patrick Berry, it was Morgan who ended up guiding the horse around the remainder of the track -- all while driving his own Village Jate N to a fifth place finish.

Black Cat Bone unseated Berry after becoming tangled with a horse that went off stride during the opening half-mile. Morgan, who was following the field in seventh place, moved to the infield to avoid hitting the fallen Berry and was later able to grab Black Cat Bone as the loose horse followed behind Village Jate N. He had Black Cat Bone in tow for approximately half the race.

"I've done it a few times before," said Morgan, who has 11,089 wins in his career and is a four-time recipient of Harness Tracks of America's Driver of the Year Award. "He was following behind me, like they do in a race, and I reached over and grabbed a hold of him. My horse was pretty racy, so I just went on around. My horse was charging and wanted to finish the mile; I let him finish so I could pull him up easy."

Village Jate N, trained by Kelvin Harrison, finished 40 lengths behind winner Cheyenne Hollywood and was timed in 2:04.1. Neither Black Cat Bone nor Berry was injured.

"I had a nice horse; he was real handy," Morgan said. "He did what I asked of him and kept me out of trouble."

Black Cat Bone is owned and trained by Erika Paradee. The 10-year-old has won 61 races lifetime and earned $760,080.

"What Tony did really meant a lot to me," Paradee said. "It was a very selfless act. So many things could have happened; it happened real quickly. Black Cat Bone had one tiny scratch on him, and it could have been so much worse. I will be forever grateful to him."

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• USTA
• Harness
• Racing
• Yonkers

[tattynsmokey]

that is so good that 1 of the jockeys helped the horse get home without a injury

[dedebelle]

Good man.

[ozawablog]

This video went viral on Sweden

[smoke123416]

good job man i so would do that for a race grab a horse instead of winning man god will pick u

[Zach1949]

@Janusmannen I believe you're correct and there are some people involved with the various state organizations trying to make that happen. But getting something done on a national level in harness racing is almost impossible since most of these people won't agree on what time it is.

[Janusmannen]

@Zach1949 I understand, but I still think you would be better off with a national standard. :-)

[Zach1949]

@Janusmannen Sweden's a lot smaller than the US and the rules vary from state to state.

[Janusmannen]

@Zach1949 Each track?! In Sweden we use a national standard for qualifying times. :-)

[elfirrepins]

He looked like he was enjoying himself out there racing 2 horses in one go lol

[Rimfaxe96]

Woah, these horses must be very well trained. :O