“I didn’t expect to I’d need an ambulance ride to an emergency ward or to be carried off on a stretcher with my upper body immobilized,” the lifetime winner of 6,699 races recalled about the third race accident on June 6.

“Right until the moment the horses went down and we got hit from behind I always thought I had lots of room. At the hospital they don’t tell you exactly how many ribs you have broken, and there’s no treatment for it except time that they can prescribe” he added. "It's just a nuisance kind of injury."

As it turned out, Miss Crownroyal and Kerr were inadvertently embroiled in the serious accident while leading in the third quarter of an A-Channel City of London Series Elimination. The race favorite, Greater Good with driver Don McElroy aboard, appeared to make a break on a strong, first-over move and hooked wheels with Miss Crownroyal. Unable to avoid that pair was Smart Lady Lil, with driver Greg Dustin, in the split second it all took to happen.

Kerr is a well-travelled horseman that now campaigns from a home base in Sarnia, Ont., and earlier in his career he had extensive stints in Florida and California.

Flak jacket issue

“I had a similar kind of accident once at Pompano and I wore a flak jacket back then. The goofy thing is I wasn’t wearing one when this accident happened” Kerr explaind. “The earlier models of the flak jacket were really bulky, and often too hot to wear, but now they’ve improved them a lot. I understand they’re making them mandatory in a lot of other places like New Jersey, and that Ontario is supposed to be following suit along with making the drivers’ safety lines mandatory, too. Definitely, I’ll be getting a flak jacket for when I come back driving.”

He expects to resume sitting on a jog cart in the coming week and to resume driving duty in a few weeks. If there was any upside to the accident for Kerr it was the timing of it.

“The top stakes prospect I train and drive this year is a 3-year-old trotter named Yankee Banker, a brother to winner Porsche Hall, that I campaigned until she was recently retired to be bred” Kerr said. “After starting off his career great he developed a few bad habits we have to work out, and I’m hoping like me he’ll come back strong for the final months of the stakes season this year, too.”

Huge Friday nights just ahead

The last two Friday nights of the current Meet at Western Fair will be filled with big money stakes action.

On June 20, all four championship finals of the A-Channel/City Of London Series will be contested. Because of the strong volume of nominations this year, the purses for the finals are C$59,200 for the colt and gelding pace final, C$60,400 for the filly and mare pace final, C$54,400 for the filly and mare trot final, and C$55,900 for the colt and gelding trot final. The total purses for June 20 are expected to surpass C$250,000.

On June 27, Western Fair will welcome the Ontario Sire Stakes 3-year-old colt and gelding pacers. In this race last year, Wholly Louy came into London and tied the age, sex and gait track record, at 1:53.1.

Through June 30, post time each Monday and Tuesday afternoon at Western Fair will be 4:05 p.m. (EDT), and each Friday evening at 7:35 p.m.

After June 30, the customary three month summer break will be followed by the resumption of live racing, on Oct. 3.