Muzi Yeni - a very lucky escape in Turffontein fall.
Report by Andrew Bon:
Race-riding is a dangerous job. It is, after all, one of the only occupations where an ambulance follows while you work.
Some years ago a Medical Journal Of Australia study found that being a jockey is more risky than plying the trade of boxing, with only the job of a deep sea commercial diver having more risk to life.
The report revealed that only skydivers, motorbike racers, loggers and pilots face less risk of being killed than the lightly framed riders of thoroughbreds. Jockeys have a higher risk of fatality than structural metal workers, farm workers, roofers and truck drivers, or participants in sports such as skydiving and motorcycling.
The study covered four years of Stipes reports of more than 75 000 races run Australia-wide and statistics counted 3360 race falls, which resulted in 861 serious injuries and five jockey deaths.
In South Africa, body and head protector equipment is compulsory for race and work-riding, and we have on-course race-day ambulance and medical and first aid services in place on all racecourses. But none during work-riding?
The quality of the medical service is not something the NHA or our racing operators freely engage in discussion about with the media, given the adverse publicity around the subject in recent years. And we must question why no emergency protocol exists for race or work-riding in the NHA’s very comprehensive rules?