The race was marred by tragedy as Chelokee broke down at the top of the stretch, throwing jockey Ramon Dominguez onto the track. Chelokee was vanned off and immediately transported to Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington while Ramon Dominguez was unhurt.
On-track veterinarian Larry Bramlage said, "He appears, on first exam, to have a condylar fracture that then affected the stability in his ankle. That's amazingly very similar to what Barbaro had, only in another leg."
Bramlage returned to Churchill Downs the following day and held a brief press conference during the Kentucky Derby undercard. He said, "He had a dislocated ankle where he dislocated the sesamoids about 5 cm (about 2 inches) up the side of the leg, and that's what the ambulance (personnel) thought initially was a condylar fracture. I’ll look at him again tomorrow morning. He lost some of the blood supply to his foot, the rest of it is coming back. We have to follow it along until it's appropriate to make an incision in the soft tissue that he injured. He had quite a lot of swelling and a lot of soft tissue damage. It's a career-ending injury. Hopefully, with a little luck, he'll be able to be a stallion."
