Jockey miraculously clings to horse after stirrup breaks in wild video

There’s nothing that spells disaster quite like a stirrup breaking during a horse race.

But for this jockey, nothing was getting in the way of finishing the race.

Abel Lezcano was battling for the lead atop horse Christmas Present during the third race at Hawthorne Race Course near Chicago on Sunday when his right stirrup suddenly gave out.

Instead of letting go and giving up on the race, Lezcano somehow managed to keep grasp of the horse as he hung from the right side of the mount and clutched the horse’s neck, completely out of view from the left side.

Lezcano miraculously finished the race still aboard the horse, finally pulling himself back atop the horse after hanging from its side for more than 10 seconds.

3

“My plan from the start of the race was to get out in front,” Lezcano said in an interview with BloodHorse. “That was the plan, and in the first turn, I felt my foot going down. I was in shock; the stirrups were new, so I didn’t understand how or why it was breaking.

“I started falling and knew I had only three options. If I let go of the horse and fall, it will go on without me, but it could hurt other jockeys and horses behind me. Possibly the horse could get hurt if I let go; he could fall while he was loose. The second option was that if I fell with the horse, it could be bad for me and the horse.

“The third option was to hold on for dear life and pray that God would give me the strength to pull myself back on.”

3

3

Though Lezcano fell behind the field in the third race, his efforts were soon rewarded: he won the seventh-race finale aboard Manuever, another horse.

“Thank God I’m only sore but glad didn’t fall or hurt anybody,” the jockey later wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. By the grace of the lord I’m here and will continue working hard.”