Body Found at Kentucky Derby Track Identified - East Idaho News
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Body Found at Kentucky Derby Track Identified

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GETTY N 050612 KENTUCKYDERBY1?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1336380216271MARK ABRAHAM/AFP/GettyImages(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) — Louisville, Ky., homicide detectives have identified the man whose injured body was found Sunday morning in one of the barns at Churchill Downs a day after the Kentucky Derby as Adan Fabian Perez, a 48-year-old from Guatemala.

Perez’s body was discovered just before 5 a.m. in Barn No. 8, four barns away from where I’ll Have Another, the horse that won the derby, was kept. 

He was identified by his 19-year-old son, Wilson Deejesus Fabian Perez.

Adan Fabian Perez worked for horse trainer Cecil Borel, the brother of veteran jockey Calvin Borel.  Perez started working for Borel in 2008 as a groomer.

“We found evidence of injuries that lead us to believe he was involved in an altercation and that foul play was involved,” Louisville Metro Police spokeswoman Alicia Smiley told ABC News.

The owner of Barn No. 8, Angel Montano, told ABC News affiliate WHAS-TV that one of his employees found the body, but Perez didn’t work for him and he did not know him.

“The barns themselves have various stalls for the horses,” Smiley said.  “He was found in the barn and not in the stall with a horse or anything.”

Before the body was identified, police said there was no evidence of a connection to Churchill Downs, the racetrack where the Kentucky Derby is held annually, or the Kentucky Derby, police said.

“We are still trying to determine what led to the incident.  At this point we don’t have anything pointing to the fact that this had any association with Churchill Downs or the Derby itself,” said Smiley.

Smiley said police have not named any suspects or made any arrests.

She said authorities are waiting for an autopsy report to determine the cause of death.

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