by Mike Curry

Veteran rider Rene Douglas was critically injured in a horrific spill during the Arlington Matron Handicap (G3) on Saturday at Arlington Park, and his jockey agent, Dennis Cooper, said he might never walk again.

Douglas was in surgery throughout early Sunday morning at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. Cooper said Douglas came out of surgery late in the morning, and the way it was explained to him, Douglas’s fifth and sixth vertebrae were compressed like two cars involved in a rear-end collision and doctors were trying to decompress the spinal cord.

Cooper said he also believes there was a fragment or fragments of bone lodged in Douglas’s spinal cord. He said at about 9:30 a.m. CDT, one of the surgeons told Douglas’s regular doctor that he did not think he would walk again.

“He’s been out of surgery a couple of hours now. They said he has movement in his upper body, but they didn’t think he’d walk again,” Cooper said. “But again, in saying that, they did say they couldn’t be a million percent sure, because of miracles and everything. They said they would not know for sure for ten days to two weeks because of the swelling. They were hoping that the swelling and contusions were what was causing the paralysis. They didn’t pull no punches when they said they didn’t think he’d ever walk again.

“They also said stranger things have happened, and a guy with his fortitude and being that [physically] fit, obviously that’s going to help.”

Douglas was taken from the track to Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, Illinois, where Cooper said doctors originally thought there was a fragment of bone lodged in the spinal cord that they might be able to remove via arthroscopic surgery. Douglas was placed in an induced coma and transferred to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where the surgical team discovered more extensive damage.

Cooper said Douglas’s wife, Natalia, arrived at the hospital in time to speak with him before the surgery.

“She got here at 10:30 last night; she got on the first flight out of Ft. Lauderdale and was there,” Cooper said. “They resuscitated him so that she could talk with him before he went in to surgery."

Cooper also said Douglas sustained significant damage to his neck and broken ribs.

“They didn’t really get into that, just like if you would have said he broke the tip of his finger. They didn’t even talk about it,” Cooper said. “Any other time, if that was what he had broken it would have been serious enough, but they didn’t get into all of that.”

Douglas's mount in the Arlington Matron, Born to Be, was bumped by Sky Mom after that opponent was angled out entering the stretch. Born to Be then clipped heels with fading pacesetter Boudoir and tumbled straight down, leaving Douglas no chance to react as he fell headfirst to the main track.

The filly was knocked unconscious and rolled over onto Douglas.

“I couldn’t watch the replay. I ride myself, and I’ve been in every situation that you can possibly be in. Rene had just called on this filly to go. I saw the hole he was going through, and I could not believe my eyes when I saw what happened,” Cooper said. “And then the worst thing, and any jock will tell you this, the worst thing is to be on a horse that has what we call a 'rubber neck,' when there is no guiding it and no holding it. You could tell she was on heels … and the horse’s head is back in his lap. There is no way to get off, no way to bail out, no way to protect yourself. And then she went straight down.

“If a horse stumbles and falls or breaks down and takes two strides or a stride and a half, you’ve got a little chance to take a deep breath and know what’s going to happen. When one falls straight out from underneath of you … well, that turned out to be the worst-case scenario because she hit her head and knocked herself out and then, it looked like slow motion, she went right over on top of him. The gate crew actually had to pull her off of him.”

Douglas, 42, lives in Miami with his wife and three boys, Michael, Giancarlo, and Christian.  A six-time leading rider at Arlington, Douglas holds the track record from most consecutive riding titles with four from 2001 through 2004.

Douglas rode his first winner in his native Panama and immigrated to the United States in 1983. He has amassed 3,587 North American victories, including the 2006 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) aboard Dreaming of Anna and the 1996 Belmont Stakes (G1) on Editor’s Note. His mounts have earned more than $102-million through Saturday.

“They said to me that he will be in intensive care for at least two weeks, and then he’ll move across the street to the trauma and rehab center at Northwestern,” Cooper said.

Mike Curry is a Thoroughbred Times TODAY editor