Two jockeys fight mid-race in Philadelphia

The incident occured in the fifth race of the day when Divine Light, ridden by Eriluis Vaz, was disqualified by officials after the horse's jockey punched Ademar Santos, who was riding Mi Helena at Philadelphia Park.

A replay showed that Santos retaliated with his arm before Vaz used his whip on his rival's back.

Santos, who accused Vaz of veering toward him three times prior to the incident, said: "I asked, 'Man, why you go like that?'. "Then he hit me in the face... in the mouth."



"My rider said, 'I got hit in the face; I've got to do something,'" said Carson Phelps, Santos's agent. "It looked like [Vaz] was trying to knock him off the horse."

"He [Vaz] could have destroyed half the field."

John Scanlan, Mi Helena's trainer, said he had witnessed such on-course behaviour only on film. He said: "He's [Santos] fired forever riding for me. I've been in this game for 50 years. I've only seen this once before, on a film."