Kentucky Derby worker discovered major illness – Sports News
Further Ado (left) gained the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland in Lexington, Kentucky, in April. (Image: Ryan C. Hermens/Lexington Herald-Leader/Tribune News Service through Getty Images)
A Spendthrift Farm worker set to attend the Kentucky Derby in help of Further Ado might owe his life to former New York Giants kicker Younghoe Koo.
The 152nd Kentucky Derby is scheduled for May 2, with Further Ado drawing post place No. 18. Race favourite Renegade will break from the unfavorable No. 1 post, setting the stage for what guarantees to be a dramatic first leg of the Triple Crown.
Mark Toothaker, a steady hand at Spendthrift Farm the place Further Ado trains, just lately underwent surgical procedure to take away a mind tumor on the University of Kentucky’s hospital. Remarkably, the tumor was solely detected after he suffered a seizure triggered by Koo’s weird missed subject purpose during the Giants’ season final yr.
During a Monday Night Football matchup between the Giants and the New England Patriots final December, Koo missed a subject purpose and was subsequently sacked, leading to a turnover. Toothaker was watching the sport from his mattress whereas his spouse, Malory, sat close by studying.
Laughing at Younghoe Koo’s chunked kick ended up saving Mark Toothaker’s life. (Image: 2025 Kathryn Riley)
After rewinding and replaying the botched kick, Toothaker laughed so onerous he went into a seizure.
“I’ve never felt anything like this in my life,” Toothaker advised the Associated Press. “I felt like I got electrocuted.”
His spouse initially assumed he was playing around earlier than calling 911. In a outstanding coincidence, Malory is a nurse at a rehabilitation hospital, the place she works alongside a brain-injury specialist.
Toothaker had a CT scan, which uncovered a sizable tumor on the left facet of his mind. Following his switch to the University of Kentucky’s hospital, the tumor was efficiently eliminated and appeared benign, leading to no everlasting harm.
“(The) kicker saved my life because it could’ve happened any other time,” Toothaker stated. “I wholeheartedly believe I was in the right spot at the right time, and he was the trigger for that happening. It was a miracle.”
Prior to the seizure, Toothaker skilled no warning indicators and maintained his common routine, crisscrossing the nation in his capability as stallion season supervisor. “I could have had it on a plane, anywhere,” Toothaker famous.
“I didn’t kill anybody. I didn’t run over a family in my Expedition running up and down the road. I guess that would’ve been the hardest thing for me to live with if somebody would’ve got hurt out of this.
“Believe me, as robust as that factor was, as violent as that seizure was, I’ve no reminiscence of it and I’d discover it onerous to consider that I would not have damage any individual or damage myself if I’d’ve been behind a wheel.”
Toothaker has extended an invitation to Koo to attend the Kentucky Derby as his guest, though the free agent kicker has not yet replied to his outreach. Koo was let go two weeks following that game and remains unsigned by any NFL team.
“I do know it wasn’t his best second, but it surely was past loopy,” Toothaker remarked. “For she and I to be belly-laughing at his expense, which I really feel horrible about now, but it surely all labored out in the long run, that for me it could not have been a higher second.”
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