BHA FINES SEDGEFIELD RACECOURSE £6,500 OVER JOCKEY TRANSPORT

The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) has fined Sedgefield Racecourse £6,500 after staff took an injured jockey to hospital in a horsebox. The unnamed jockey fell during the fifth race at a meeting on 19 March at the County Durham course. A racecourse doctor examined him after he reported pain in his left collarbone and shoulder. The doctor cleared him to ride in the final race, but the jockey reported increased pain afterwards. A doctor then advised him to attend A&E.

By then, all ambulance crews had left Sedgefield Racecourse, according to a BHA disciplinary panel. The jockey could not get into a car because of the pain, so staff took him to hospital in a horsebox. Medical staff followed in a car. The panel found that the racecourse had failed to comply with five “general instructions” under the Rules of Racing. “The ‘general instructions’ require proper transfer to hospital with accompaniment from qualified medical staff not, as here, being followed in a car,” the panel said.

The panel also cited a telephone line that did not work. It described the medical rooms as “tired worn rooms not conveying a clean clinical area”. Sedgefield Racecourse acknowledged “errors and shortcomings”. An inspection in April found “significant progress” at the course.