Horseracing has a habit of humbling even its most experienced riders without a moment’s notice. One stumble is all it takes, and at Belmont, that’s exactly what happened. A clipped heel, a horse losing its footing, and suddenly, a jockey was airborne. Most jockeys don’t walk away from that, and what happened next was remarkable horsemanship, extraordinary luck, or both. 

After all, most horse racing fans across the world had their eyes on the Belmont racetrack as the eighth race of the day kicked off. For many, Glint’s launch of Edgard Zayas marked their first live jockey ejection. The thoroughbred clipped heels with another horse, got spooked and flung the jockey headfirst onto the track.

Yet despite that, Zayas walked off uninjured, even though the landing looked dangerous.

“Thank you to everyone for the prayers, messages, and positive thoughts today,’’ he wrote on X. “Thank god I am ok and managed to escape any Injuries!’’

The Puerto Rican was stood down for the rest of the card. The 32-year-old’s agent, Tito Fuentes, further explained that Zayas ended up with a “little cut on his hand and his face. Other than that he’s fine.’’ Fuentes also touched upon why Glint flung his jockey off his back.

“Edgard’s horse clipped heels with the other horse and that’s why Edgard could not stay on the horse,” Fuentes added. The race chart confirmed this, ending Glint’s bid for a fifth career win.

Horse racing fans were stunned by another incident on the same day. Across the country, at Mountaineer Park in West Virginia, the last race had just started. But R Candy started all out of sorts and stumbled out of the gates after getting clipped by Fiamma. Jockey Brandon Whitacre tried his best to control his mount, but the horse’s face hit the ground, which led to the jockey being flung.

Whitacre narrowly escaped being trampled as his mount recovered and sprinted on. However, video suggests his mount’s hind leg may have struck his face as officials rushed to assist. Whitacre had fallen before, with a 2016 incident previously sidelining him for months.

That was after he got flung off his mount, Army Bell, in 2016; the jockey had to be taken to the hospital. Whitacre suffered three cracked ribs, a punctured lung, and T-5 vertebra damage, sidelining him for three months. The jockey eventually made his comeback, although no one has provided an update regarding his latest fall.

These incidents at Belmont and Mountaineer Park are jarring, but they aren’t anomalies in the sport. The Churchill Downs track alone has its own grim catalog of jockeys parted from their mounts in the most dramatic fashion.

Churchill Downs has a history of horses throwing jockeys off

A big example from 2026 was Great White at the 152nd running of the Kentucky Derby. While not favored, something spooked the gray gelding before the start. He threw his jockey and then got scratched by the race officials, but trainer John Ennis insisted that the horse and jockey were fine after the fact.

“He’s perfect,” Ennis told The Associated Press. “Very fresh. (The incident) took nothing out of him.”

Move back one year, and Brian Hernandez Jr. suffered a horrific fall at Churchill Downs. The jockey was riding St. Garcia in the third race when the colt injured one of his front legs. That saw Hernandez flung to the ground, and he hit the surface hard. At the hospital, doctors diagnosed the jockey with broken ribs, a punctured lung, and a liver laceration.

That alone put him out of action for months, although Hernandez took to X (formerly known as Twitter) soon after the crash to let fans know he was ok.

“I want to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers! The doctors here at UofL have been absolutely fantastic,” Hernandez wrote on X. “Hopefully one step closer to going home. Many thanks.”

Two days before the 150th Kentucky Derby in 2024, two horses fell and threw their jockeys. During a race, Territoriality clipped an outside horse’s heels, fell and threw its jockey, Irving Moncada, off. Less than a minute later and something similar happened when Vostra struck another horse, and off went jockey Emmanuel Giles. Medical staff took the two men to a hospital for further examination, and outriders caught the two horses.

For Edgard Zayas, Belmont could have ended far differently after Glint launched him headfirst onto the track. Instead, he walked away shaken but unharmed, adding another entry to horse racing’s long and unforgiving history.