“When something like that happens, it’s something that makes you or breaks you in this career.
You can’t be scared when you ride thoroughbreds.” ~ Korina McLean
On any given morning at any given racetrack, an exercise rider can be dropped by a high-strung Thoroughbred racehorse. It is a risk riders consciously accept. When it happens on occasion at Woodbine, a loud air siren goes off, an audible warning to all that a 1,000+ lb animal is on the loose and a danger to anyone in its way. In that wake can lay a stunned human wondering what hit them.
On May 6, 2021, during morning training on the main track at Woodbine, it happened to exercise rider Korina McLean.
“My scream probably echoed through the entire grandstand,” recalled the 28-year-old Brampton, Ontario native, now in her fourth season riding for esteemed local trainer Kevin Attard.
McLean was aboard one of the stable’s older horses moments before the 7:30 am harrow break, when the gelding lost his balance and fell over, trapping McLean’s left leg.
“As soon as he rolled on top of me, I heard and felt a crack,” she remembered. “I’m laying on the track. I’m scared to move because I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
The horse immediately rose up and was corralled unharmed. However, McLean suffered traumatic injuries.
With the calming presence of veteran Woodbine outrider Robert Love, who McLean praised as a godsend, she managed her emotions until paramedics arrived. Love told McLean her left leg appeared to be dislocated and was splayed out at a 90-degree angle.
“They’re trying to get me on the stretcher and they need to pop my leg back into place, so they do that,” she said, adding another scream accompanied that excruciating manoeuvre.
An x-ray showing the damage.
McLean was taken by ambulance to Sunnybrook Hospital, where she entered the Trauma Unit. Her blood pressure was also dangerously low, requiring a blood transfusion that same day.
“I just remember going in and they want to cut my clothes off and I started fighting them. They give me [the painkiller] Fentanyl and all of sudden everything is a twilight zone.”
Doctors took x-rays and discovered McLean had suffered a fractured pelvis, a three-millimeter crack in her sacrum, displacement to her L5 vertebrae and internal bleeding.
The first week in hospital was especially tough. McLean had to wait days for a bed in ICU. She went through a vicious cycle of vomiting from painkillers and not wanting to eat, which in turn made the painkillers even more unpalatable.
“I couldn’t push over that hump,” she said. “I felt sick all the time, scared to eat.”
The mental toll also hit hard. “The first two and half weeks, I was depressed. I was worrying about not being able to ride.” Foremost on McLean’s mind from the moment she was injured was her love for the horses she rode, especially a driving desire to be reunited with Attard’s promising colt Stephen, who she adored.
Twisty Road to the Track
McLean’s path to the racetrack had been turbulent. She never knew her father and has had a mercurial relationship with her mother.
“I actually grew up in foster homes and group homes with Children’s Aid Society (CAS)”, she candidly admits. “ I used to be surrounded by a lot of bad kids, bad influences.”
In addition, McLean was diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). At age 12, she was made a Crown Ward, with Children’s Aid becoming her guardian. Along the way, CAS made an inspired decision to help finance horse riding lessons for her and a fuse was lit. McLean found an outlet for her energy in horses and pursued that passion, eventually leaving foster care at age 17, landing a string of jobs grooming for noted Standardbred trainers including Casie Coleman, Blake MacIntosh and Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Famer Carl Jamieson.
McLean was later introduced to Woodbine trainer Chris Huarte through a Standardbred friend. Huarte was instrumental in helping her network in the Thoroughbred world at Woodbine, with the end result of landing a full-time job with Attard, where she’s worked since 2019.
“I always wanted to get into Thoroughbreds, but I was nervous,” she reflected with a laugh. “What if I get dropped?”
The Comeback – and Moira
Cue the comeback: A hospital visit from her brother, Mathew, helped bolster McLean’s flagging spirits. Working daily with physiotherapists at Sunnybrook, a determined McLean made rapid progress. Three-and-a-half weeks after the spill, she was walking.
She would soon return to Woodbine and get around on crutches until mid-June when she was healthy enough to resume riding the stable pony, Smarty. Doctors were amazed by her speedy recovery and soon cleared her to ride racehorses again. She cried tears of joy when she first sat aboard her favourite, Stephen. Mission accomplished.
Although her pelvis is still misshapen from the accident, McLean says, “Everything’s beautiful,” while addressing how her physical injuries have mended. She credits the staff at Sunnybrook and believes being fit before the injury helped her recover months ahead of schedule. Doctors had initially projected she would be out until October, but after they opted to let her injuries heal naturally without additional surgery, McLean’s rehab dedication ignited her return by mid-summer.
And then there is Moira, the sensational three-year-old Ghostzapper filly who stormed onto the Canadian racing scene last October, winning the prestigious Princess Elizabeth Stakes at Woodbine in her first lifetime start.
“I want kids who have had a rough life to get into horses because they have that ability to heal you. I feel like horses saved my life.”
Moira’s arrival at Woodbine in 2021 coincided with McLean’s return from injury and the two hit it off immediately. McLean became Moira’s regular exercise rider and she’s developed a deep bond with the bay filly, who recently captured the Woodbine Oaks by an effortless 10 ¾ lengths.
“Every day after training is done I will sit in her stall and hand feed her barley grass. And a lot of times after she eats her grass she will go down for a nap with me right in there with her. Not many horses will lay down with someone in the stall with them but she does. I think she trusts me that much.”
Korina and Moira have a moment.
Moira’s Oaks romp reinforced her silky-smooth transition from age two to three, but McLean said her greatest relief came when the filly’s easy-going morning demeanor didn’t change, even
after winning a stake in her first career start.
“I would be devastated if she turned into too much horse for me. And I wouldn’t get to ride her
anymore because she’d be too tough because that happens. I was really happy even after she raced, I could still gallop her in company with other horses. She’s so easy.”
McLean’s journey has been anything but easy, but she believes wayward youth could potentially find their calling at a farm or the racetrack, like she did.
“It’s amazing to be a part of it. I want kids who have had a rough life to get into horses because they have that ability to heal you. I feel like horses saved my life.”
Eleven years after leaving foster care, and 15 months after suffering a horrific injury, McLean is again enjoying her horse racing odyssey. She’s loyal and grateful to Attard for the faith he’s shown in her, as well as the owners who entrust their horses to her, especially her favourite filly.
“It’s incredible. I never thought I’d see a day where I would ride a winning Oaks horse, and now she’s going to the Queen’s Plate as the favourite. It’s mind-blowing.”
