by Paul Post

Exercise rider and former jockey Parker Buckley III died on Tuesday morning, one day after being thrown from a horse on the Oklahoma Training Track at Saratoga Race Course.

Buckley, 40, was taken to Saratoga Hospital and then flown to Albany Medical Center Hosptial, where a CT scan revealed that he had blood on the brain and doctors placed him in a medically induced coma.

The accident occurred sometime between 8 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. EDT on Monday.

“I went down and visited with his family [who are from Fort Walton Beach, Florida]—his mother, sister, and aunt,” trainer Steve Asmussen said Tuesday.

Asmussen said he did not personally witness the accident or know details of exactly what happened.

“I’ve heard all kinds of versions,” he said.

Asmussen hired Buckley in April 2007 and said he had known him since 1987, when they first met at Birmingham Race Course.

“Last winter, he called me from Tampa and said he was going to quit riding,” Asmussen said. “He’s worked for me ever since. I can say without hesitation, he’s a great guy. I never met anybody who didn’t like him.

“He had some pretty good wins during his career. I’m not sure if he won any titles, but I think he was close a couple times.”

The New York Racing Association released no additional information on the accident, other than to issue a statement expressing condolences to Buckley's family.

"The New York Racing Association was deeply saddened to learn that Parker Buckley passed away this morning," the statement said. "Our sympathies go out to his family."

NYRA Spokesman John Lee said he was unsure of the last time there was a serious accident in Saratoga.

A published report in the Albany Times-Union said the last fatality was on September 19, 1996, when assistant trainer Elizabeth Russello was killed when jogging a horse over the training track.

Buckley spent most of his riding career at upstate New York’s Finger Lakes Race Track where he was involved in an accident on July 20, 2005. He also was hurt at Hoosier Park in 1990.

Buckley rode 947 winners from 7,306 mounts that earned $9,213,807.

Funeral arrangements were pending on Tuesday afternoon.

Paul Post is a New York-based Thoroughbred Times correspondent