Page 19 - January 2017 Thoroughbred Highlight

August 2001 issue
Jockey Laurie Gulas became the only female jockey to have won a Triple Crown Race when she won the 1999 Breeders’ Stakes with longshot lly Free Vacation, trained by Roger Att eld who owned the lly with partners Michael and Phyllis Canino and William Werner.
A little more than a month
after that win Laurie would have
the rst of two spills that would
change her life as she knew it.
September 23, 1999 Laurie went
down in a 1 1/2 mile turf race at
Woodbine. Although she was
sore she continued to ride, telling
herself and others that she felt ne.
But as the days passed Laurie started to feel worse and it was determined in mid-October that she had suffered a severe concussion and neck injury and was showing signs of neurological damage.
She returned to the track in February 2000 however on March 19, 2000 Laurie was working a horse in the morning on the main track when the horse suffered
a heart attack throwing Laurie to the ground in about the same way as her last spill.
Her injuries now compounded Laurie was told that she could not do much of anything for fear of making her injuries worse. But what Laurie and her doctors did not know was that she had actually suffered injuries far worse than they had diagnosed. The weeks passed and she wasn’t getting any better and Laurie was struggling with depression because she “just wanted her life back”.
September 2001
A Niagara Regional Emergency Command Centre van had been stationed in the parking lot at Fort Erie Race Track since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. Because of the Race Track’s close proximity
to the US border, the parking lot had been
used as a pre-inspection center for truck traf c traveling to the United States. The parking lot was jammed with more than 500 trucks waiting to cross the Peace Bridge while the border was closed. The trucks had all been cleared and crossed the border by September 16.
On January 15, 2001 ten months after her spill, Laurie went in for surgery. The surgeon was quite surprised to nd that Laurie’s collarbone was broken and it
was actually torn off the chest wall. According to Laurie this
was something that the surgeons didn’t come across very often. “They told me that they didn’t usually come across this type of injury on someone who was still living” Laurie added, “Usually they would see this type of injury on
a car accident victim, you know, someone who had hit the steering wheel.”
Laurie returned to the track at the beginning of July 2001 riding her rst race back on July 11 aboard the Arthur Silvera trained Frozen Love. She nished seventh in the race but it felt like a win for the determined jockey.
Laurie would continue to ride for a few more years however serious injuries continued to plaque her forcing her to eventually retire from racing in 2007.
Trainer Arthur Silvera & Jockey Laurie Gulas
In 2001- Sweetest Thing,
won another one for the girls becoming the third lly in four years to win the Breeders’ Stakes. It was the same owner, trainer combo however Jockey Jim McAleney was aboard for this Breeders’ Stakes win.
Thoroughbred Highlight - Page 19 - January 2017