Sportsupdated 54m ago3 min read
Archive photo · 4 September 2003Sedgefield Racecourse Fined £6,500 After Jockey Taken To Hospital In Horsebox
4 Western Mainstream3 Western TabloidPhoto: Jill Williamson/Sue-Lee Rowlands of Sedgefield Racecourse, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Cropped for layout
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Sedgefield Racecourse fined £6,500 by the British Horseracing Authority. Jockey transported to hospital in a horsebox after ambulance shortage in March.
7 outlets told this the same way.
Horsebox to A&E
Sedgefield Racecourse was fined £6,500 by the British Horseracing Authority after a jockey was taken to hospital in a horsebox instead of an ambulance following a fall in March at Sedgefield Racecourse in County Durham. The BHA disciplinary panel found the racecourse failed to comply with five “general instructions” within its Rules of Racing, and the panel said, “The 'general instructions' require proper transfer to hospital with accompaniment from qualified medical staff not, as here, being followed in a car,”. The jockey was examined by a doctor at the course after a fall in the fifth race, and the jockey was cleared to race again before pain led to a doctor advising transfer to A&E.
The racecourse acknowledged “errors and shortcomings,” and an inspection in April revealed “significant progress,” after the incident. The incident left the jockey without ambulance cover, and the jockey was taken in a horsebox with the medical staff following behind after all ambulance crews had left the venue.
Panel chair O’Mahony
HH James O'Mahoney, the deputy judicial panel chair, said, “there are not many occupations in life where a participant is followed at his/her heels by an ambulance - although in this case there was no ambulance to transfer to A & E.” O'Mahoney added that “Jockeys are entitled to be sure that in a potentially dangerous sport that they have ready access to prompt medical care,” as the panel considered the March incident. The BHA panel also heard that the jockey suffered pain over the left clavicle and shoulder, was given an analgesic, and was unable in pain to board a car when the ambulance crews had left.
The panel chair described the “General Instructions” as requiring proper transfer to hospital with accompaniment from qualified medical staff rather than being followed in a car. The BHA disciplinary panel also cited other breaches including a telephone line not working and “tired worn rooms not conveying a clean clinical area,” alongside a suture trolley described as “a heritage item of furniture.”
Rules, fines, and compliance
The BHA disciplinary panel imposed the £6,500 fine on Sedgefield after it was referred for multiple violations of general instructions stemming from the March incident. The Telegraph said the course was fined following the incident in March, and it quoted the panel’s view that the “general instructions” require proper transfer to hospital with accompaniment from qualified medical staff rather than being followed in a car. The Irish Mirror reported a different figure, saying Sedgefield Racecourse was fined €7,760, while also describing the same March incident in which all ambulance crews had left the Co Durham track.
Sporting Life said the fast-tracked case was revealed on Monday, and it quoted O’Mahony’s account of the jockey’s fall in Race 5 on the above date, March 19. Sporting Life also said the racecourse were found guilty of other breaches including “tired worn rooms not conveying of a clean clinical area,” the “direct line telephone not working,” and a “lack of communication between officials; failure of medical team to notify the Clerk of the Course as to the injured Jockey.”