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Sports Oct 21, 2023
| Photo courtesy of Traveler100/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
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A 53-year-old exercise rider died Friday in a training incident at Los Alamitos Race Course.
Alfredo Luevano was riding the 2-year-old filly Fly From The Fire on the backstretch during morning training hours at the Cypress track when the incident occurred, according to Los Alamitos Race Course publicity director Orlando Gutierrez.
Luevano was on the ground when assistance arrived, then taken to Long Beach Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, Gutierrez said.
There have been no eyewitness accounts with any precise details on the incident, according to Gutierrez.
Fly From The Fire ran off under her own power and was not injured. The quarter horse was entered in Saturday’s seventh race but scratched as a precaution, Gutierrez said.
Luevano was born in Luis Moya in the Mexican state of Zacatecas. He had 33 mounts as a jockey, mostly in Mexico and Colorado.
Luevano was issued an exercise rider license by the California Horse Racing Board this year.
Luevano is survived by his wife Marisela Martinez, their children Lisbet, Alfredo Jr., Alex, Aldo and Camila, six grandchildren and his father Augustine.
A moment of silence will be held in Luevano’s memory before Sunday’s race card at Los Alamitos.
“On behalf of the Los Alamitos Race Course family, we express our deepest condolences to Mr. Luevano’s family members and friends,” Gutierrez said in a statement.
Fly From The Fire has run in five races in her career, all at Los Alamitos. A second-place finish in a handicap race July 30 was the only time she has finished in the money.
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