“And they’re off. You lose.” That old Abbott and Costello routine played out in real life yesterday at Belmont Park when the 3-year-old filly Starrer, heavily favored at 4-5 in the Grade 1, $350,000 Coaching Club American Oaks, stumbled a few steps out of the gate and tossed her Hall-of-Fame jockey, Chris McCarron, over her neck to the ground.
As the ambulance attendants rushed to McCarron’s side and placed him in a stretcher, the riderless filly shot to the front of the field, opened a daylight advantage and led all the way in the mile-and-a half event.
The official winner, however, was longshot Tweedside, ridden by the meet’s leading rider, John Velazquez, who came through inside pace-setting Tap Dance on the final turn and drew off to score by 73/4 lengths, her final time a slow 2:30.3.
Exogenous, the 5-2 second choice, was second, with Unbridled Lassie 21½ lengths behind her in third.
An outrider easily grabbed hold of Starrer’s dangling reins as she galloped out after the race, and she returned unharmed. McCarron suffered a slight bruise to his rump when Starrer kicked him as he lay on the track, but nothing compared to his bruised ego. Within minutes he was headed to the airport for a flight back to California.
Tweedside, trained by Todd Pletcher, was coming off a six-length victory in the Sands Point at Belmont in June. The daughter of Thunder Gulch, who also sired this year’s Belmont Stakes winner Point Given, paid $23.40 topping an $84.50 exacta.
“After the Sands Point is when we considered running her in this race,” Pletcher said. “She’s bred to stay and I thought the ingredients were there to take a shot.”