The National Horseracing Authority will hold an inquiry on Thursday 10 December at 10h00 into the Jarred Samuel accident at Greyville last Friday.
It is unclear what the focus of the inquiry will be, but the public outrage that followed the handling and apparent inability of the attendant medical staff to deal expediently with the emergency is bound to force the horseracing regulator to take serious – and hopefully decisive action.
The Sporting Post was approached by concerned family members of jockeys to expose what was seen as a life threatening delay to attending properly to Jarred Samuel.
This included allegations of an inadequately equipped ambulance, and basic controls not being in place – including missing documentation, hospital contact details, and even directions on how to get to to the medical facility being unknown,
The article elicited plenty of response on social media, including these from two well-known personalities:
Alyson Wright said:
Things haven’t changed in 13yrs. Kevin (my jockey husband) was kicked at the start at Clairwood in 2003. He lay on the side of the track with a broken leg for over an hour before he was moved. He was not given any pain killers as the medical staff where not qualified enough to administer anything. That was the end of Kevin’s riding career. I wonder if things would have been different had he been attended to properly.
Ashleigh Hughes said:
There are NO medics in attendance at any training facilities in the mornings, where more than 3 times the number of horses and riders gallop and work horses. The entire industry needs to review the standard of medical care and support that is being provided. The horses are no better off with vets being many kilometers away from most training facilities. This is a very sad day in South African racing.
Richard Fourie – suffered poor treatment at Clairwood
We have previously asked the racing operators for comment on allegations of their casual handling of emergency stand-by facilities on tracks.This included an accident in which Richard Fourie was injured at Greyville last season. No feedback has been forthcoming.
An inquiry was opened by the NHA into an incident at the start of a race at Turffontein on 14 November, where S’manga Khumalo was injured. The matter has not yet been finalised.
Jockeys canvassed were not willing to be quoted, but the general sentiment was that they had had enough and that racing would not get away with sweeping the Samuel incident under the carpet.
Apparently Tex Lerena of the Jockeys Association of South Africa approached Phumelela a week ago with safety concerns but is yet to receive any feedback.
The Gold Circle AGM is being held at Greyville on Tuesday evening and a member said earlier that management would probably be forced to answer some serious questions.
The good news is that Jarred Samuel was reported to be stable today.
