The Southern California racing industry is rallying around Joy Scott, a local jockey who was injured March 12 in a training accident at Santa Anita Park. A fund has been set up through the Winners Foundation to help Scott with her medical expenses.
Scott, 53, was on a horse trained by Eric Guillot when it reared and threw her. She suffered a compound fracture to her right femur, and a subsequent infection has delayed surgery at Huntington Memorial Hospital in nearby Pasadena. The horse was not injured.
Trainer Howard Zucker is spearheading the fundraising effort, with the help of Bob Fletcher of the Winners Foundation, Candace Coder-Chew, director of print and graphics at Santa Anita, Rosie Ybarra, and Chris Aplin. The Winners Foundation not only helps those in the industry with substance abuse problems, it frequently aids backstretch workers in a variety of ways.
Coder-Chew created a giant card that everyone signed at Santa Anita’s Clockers’ Corner. John Shear, the 90-year-old paddock guard who threw himself in front of a young girl to save her when a horse got loose in the paddock a couple of years ago, took the card to Scott at the hospital.
"People have really stepped up," said Zucker. "It has been absolutely great. Joy is such a hard worker—she’s been doing three jobs and is a single mother. She exercises horses in the morning, rides occasionally at Santa Anita, and then goes down to Los Alamitos and rides there at night."
Ybarra, who runs Santa Anita’s concession stand at Clockers’ Corner, has been collecting there, while Aplin has gone through the barn area.
"People have been wonderful," said Aplin, a good friend of Scott’s."One groom told me yesterday to come back today because he had to go to the bank. He gave me $100."
Fletcher said that anyone wanting to donate money can make a check out to the Winners Foundation and specify that it go to help Scott. The Winners Foundation can be contacted at 285 W. Huntington Drive, Arcadia, Calif. 91007, or through its phone number, 626-574-6498, or website, www.winnersfoundation.org.
