'It is a sickening feeling' - tragedy strikes Maple Leaf Mel when on verge of winning American Grade 1

With an eighth of a mile left to go in the Grade 1 $500,000 Test Stakes at Saratoga on Saturday, the crowd was roaring as Maple Leaf Mel's stride was strong and her lead in the seven-furlong race was widening.

Melanie Giddings, 39, the trainer of the three-year-old filly who is named for her, was hollering for her stable star as the filly got closer to the finish line. Giddings, who has been running her own stable since only November, was about to win her first Grade 1 with a horse so close to her heart.

And then, tragedy. 

Ten yards away from a certain victory, the unthinkable. Maple Leaf Mel, who had built up a three-length lead and was on the way to Grade 1 glory, stumbled in the shadow of the wire, pitching jockey Joel Rosario to the dirt and falling herself. 

Giddings' screams of excitement turned to agony as she wailed as her brave grey got to her feet, but the damage was done.

Maple Leaf Mel had sustained a catastrophic injury to her right front leg and was humanely put down on the track. Giddings was inconsolable as she was met on the track by Bill Parcells, the Hall of Fame football coach who owned the filly.

The two hugged as Maple Leaf Mel was put to sleep behind multiple screens to shield the scene from a Whitney Day record crowd of 43,788, whose noise had gone from a crescendo of joyful noise to sullen silence.

Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher, who finished third with Munnys Gold, behind first-place Pretty Mischievious and runner-up Clearly Unhinged, lightly touched Parcells' shoulder as he walked off the track. Parcells left the winner's circle, protecting Giddings who was with him. Neither stopped to talk.

People cried. They hugged. They stood stunned, unable or unwilling to speak.

Rosario walked to an ambulance with assistance and was taken off his mounts for the rest of the day. According to the New York Racing Association, he was taken to Albany Medical Center for evaluation and to receive stitches for facial abrasions.

Maple Leaf Mel had led the race from the start and was a cinch to get her sixth career win without a loss. The five prior wins, all in the same fashion, were decisive scores.

The New York-bred filly was born at Waldorf Farm in Chatham, about 50 miles from Saratoga. A daughter of Cross Traffic and the City Place mare City Gift, Maple Leaf Mel was bred by Joe Fafone. He was at the track to watch the filly run in the Test; he left the track right after the accident.

"I've followed her career since Bill bought her," Fafone said by phone. "It is a sickening feeling. This is sad because it happened, it is sad where it happened, and it's sad how it happened. In my mind, she won the race and she will go down as one of the better New York fillies."

Maple Leaf Mel was originally in the barn of trainer Jeremiah Englehart, but when Giddings went out on her own, it seemed only right that Maple Leaf Mel went with her. She had worked with the filly since she came to the Englehart barn. They had formed a pact.

Giddings, a cancer survivor, had three wins in her short career as a trainer. 

Lost in all of the sorrow and sadness was the fact that there had to be a winner in the Test and that went to Godolphin's Pretty Mischievous, this spring's Group 1 Kentucky Oaks winner and the 9-5 favourite. She was well behind Maple Leaf Mel at the time the leader fell. She was awarded the victory when she finished a head in front of 17-1 Clearly Unhinged, trained by Michael McCarthy and owned by Rock Brothers Racing.

Connections of the top two finishers were in no mood to celebrate. There was no winner's circle picture taken as the Godolphin team declined to go that way.

Michael Banahan: 'It was just a horrid accident'Credit: Michele MacDonald

"It's just a dreadfully hollow way to win a race," said Michael Banahan, director of bloodstock for Godolphin USA. "Obviously, she was second best in the race. It was just a horrid accident."

Brendan Walsh, the trainer of Pretty Mischievous, was equally as stunned.

"It's just cruel what happened," he said. "I just feel terrible for Melanie and that whole team. That must be gut-wrenching. I don't know what to think right now."

"I feel so bad for the connections of Mel," said jockey Tyler Gaffalione, who rode Pretty Mischievous. "It's hard to enjoy this one thinking about that."

McCarthy was just as down as he walked through the clubhouse after the race.

"Tough to see," he said. "It's hard to even talk about it. I have no words. I just feel terrible for them."

According to Equibase, the final time for the race was omitted pending a review.