A new meaning to Boxing Day...

I was on my way from doing a shopping run for a new disc burner and a new set of blank DVDs, and I got this news.

It gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "Boxing Day." This guy is gonna be in a box in a few days. As in a casket. The fact that this guy is also from my home town makes it all the more bitter.

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Jockey dies of injuries after thrown from horse
36-year-old Long Beach man was riding Harems Dynasty she dropped him after race.

BY LARRY BORTSTEIN
Special to The Orange County Register


LOS ALAMITOS – Quarter-horse jockey Sam Thompson, 36, died early Thursday morning at Los Alamitos Medical Center of injuries he suffered Dec. 20 when thrown from a horse after a race at Los Alamitos.

Thompson, a resident of Long Beach, had been on life support since being admitted to the hospital.

Los Alamitos spokesman Orlando Gutierrez said Thompson's family chose to have Thompson taken off life support. He is survived by his father, Samuel Harold; mother, Gloria; brother, Eric; sister, Kim; and longtime girlfriend, Kristen Watanabe.

Thompson recently had returned to competition after missing most of 2008 because of a broken foot. He had 100 mounts this year, winning with 12.

He was injured when Harems Dynasty, a 2-year-old filly trained by Cody Joiner, who was making the first start of her career, dropped him past the wire after finishing seventh in the eighth race Dec. 20.

Thompson won 600 races at Los Alamitos. His two biggest victories came in the Los Alamitos Million Futurity, with This Snow Is Royal in 1997 and Corona Kool in 1999. Both were 2-year-olds trained by Donna McArthur.

Gutierrez said Los Alamitos Race Course, which concluded its 2008 schedule Dec. 21, will have a memorial service for Thompson when the 2009 season begins on Jan. 2.

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Wonder what the son of Sam thinks about it all. Actually, forget about it, he was 36 and they didn't have kids. Double shame.