Racecourse fined after injured jockey taken to hospital in horse float
A racecourse in England has been slapped with a $12,359 AUD fine after a jockey was taken to hospital in a horse float after falling off his horse.
The incident unfolded at Sedgefield Racecourse in County Durham in March where an unnamed jockey came off his horse and injured his collarbone and shoulder.
Jockeys in action at Sedgefield Racecourse. Alan Crowhurst
The jockey was reportedly assessed by the racecourse doctor after the fall and was cleared to race again, despite flagging upper body pain.
Doctors later advised that the jockey should go to hospital due to the lingering pain, but all ambulances that were on-site had already left the facility.
The jockey was then transported via a horse float to the hospital, with the racecourse’s medical team following behind in a car.
It was reported that the jockey was in too much pain to be moved out of the horse float and into the car with the medical team who travelled to the hospital.
The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) found Sedgefield Racecourse had failed to comply with the “general instructions” of transporting an injured jockey.
“The general instructions require proper transfer to hospital with accompaniment from qualified medical staff not, as here, being followed in a car,” the disciplinary panel confirmed.
“Jockeys are entitled to be sure that in a potentially dangerous sport that they have ready access to prompt medical care.”
A number of issues were also discovered at the racecourse during the BHA’s investigation in April, including the telephone lines not working.
The racecourse acknowledged its “errors and shortcomings” before confirming “significant progress” had been made since the BHA’s inspection to fix its mistake.
