HE’S A CONNIVER’S CRASH AT THE SECOND FENCE

EMO Stables He's A Conniver who won the 2010 International Gold Cup last October was considered one of the favorites for Saturday's Gold Cup. Unfortunately, he crashed at the second fence causing More Fascination and Delta Park to both unseat their riders in the immediate aftermath.

Amazingly, nobody was hurt, but the incident took out half of the Gold Cup field.

Here is the incident as captured by Douglas Lees.

He's A Conniver and Jody Petty are on final approach and it's obvious they are already in big trouble.  More Facination and Paddy Young (blue and orange) and Delta Park and Xavier Aizpuru are just behind.

He's A Conniver is doing the classic crash landing roll which pitches Petty out the front door.

At this point, More Fascination looks to be concentrating on his own landing and he hasn't seen Petty or He's A Conniver.

Now he has...As He's A Conniver continues to roll and Petty hits the ground, More Fascination has just noticed the surprise road block. He will duck left to miss the fallen horse and rider and Young simply can't adjust to the quick change in direction.

He's A Conniver has almost finished his roll and More Fascination has made a big lateral move.  The change in momentum and direction leaves Young hanging in space.  Jody Petty is on the ground but on the lookout for oncoming traffic.

He's A Conniver has that classic "What happened?" look while Radio Flyer (green and white) and the eventual winner Bon Caddo have time to react to avoid further mishap.

Both He's A Conniver and Petty are now just looking to get out of the way.

Paddy Young and Xavier Aizpuru no worse for the wear after their very early exit from the Virginia Gold Cup.