Posted on 03/31/2005 2:51:07 AM PST by Red Sea Swimmer
FIVE jockeys crashed to the turf and were injured when hundreds of seagulls flew into horses racing down the home straight in a freak accident yesterday.
Mayhem erupted in the last race at Sandown as 11 horses charged towards a huge flock of gulls about 200m from the finish.
The birds took off in panic, flying into the gallopers who shied and sent their riders sprawling.
Apprentice Brady Cross suffered a broken arm while Darren Gauci had chipped teeth and underwent an MRI scan after complaining of neck soreness.
Also hurt were Chris Symons (bruised shoulder), Luke Nolen (sprained thumb) and apprentice Michael Guthrie (bruising).
Only five runners finished and the race was declared void.
The incident caps a shocking month for racing after the deaths of two Victorian jockeys in falls and a serious spinal injury to champion Damien Oliver.
The Melbourne Racing Club will hold an emergency meeting today over the Sandown drama.
Chief steward Des Gleeson said he had never seen anything like it.
"Bizarre and extraordinary," he said. "Usually they just fly away but whether they couldn't see the horses as they were facing the sun, or didn't hear them because it was still, I'm not sure."
Greg Childs, who was struck by a bird and pulled his mount up, said Sandown was notorious for seagulls and they were an accident waiting to happen.
"Forget about vests and skull caps. We've always had this problem with the seagulls," Childs said.
He said it was like riding in darkness when the seagulls flew into the field. Peter Mertens, who rode the first horse past the post, said he had four seagulls in his lap and no idea where he was going.
"I got hit so hard my horse went sideways and I thought I was going to end up on the car track," he said.
Nick Ryan was catapaulted into the air, but managed to scramble back into the saddle.
Symons said as he was falling he held on to Ryan's reins and balanced between the horses for 20m before hitting the turf.
He said he spotted the seagulls from the 500m mark. "I could see trouble coming a long way out."
In an ugly twist, police were called after an angry punter stormed the stewards room to complain about the drama.
Mr Gleeson said seagulls had been a concern for sometime at Sandown, which has an infield lake.
But he said they had never settled on the turf in the home straight.
Mr Gleeson said he interviewed all the jockeys involved in yesterday's debacle, bar Cross and Gauci, and they all said their mounts had been affected to some degree.
MRC chief executive Warran Brown said the club would look for a solution.
"The club is very concerned about the health of the jockeys. We will conduct a meeting with all our managers and work out a way to remedy this problem," he said.
Wangaratta jockey Adrian Ledger, 25, died after a fall at Corowa on March 13.
A day later, apprentice jockey Gavin Lisk, 23, was killed when he fell from his mount at Moe. Lisk became the 300th jockey killed on Australian tracks since racing began in the 1840s.
Oliver, 31, had surgery last week to fuse two vertebrae in his neck after falling during a night meeting at Moonee Valley last Thursday.
Yesterday's race capped a bad week for Gauci who also fell in the same race as Oliver.
"He's had a lot of pain in that area but there's nothing else wrong," his father-in-law John Dunkerton said.
Mr Dunkerton, also a jockey manager, said seagulls were always a problem at Sandown.
"Every time they hold a meeting there there's always a massive flock of seagulls," he said.
"I don't know what they are going to do about."
A seagull is believed to have caused the fall which led to the death of jockey Noel Barker in a barrier trial at Randwick in Sydney in 1992.
What in the world is going on at the moment ?
The chaos is getting out of control.
I ma interested to know of any other "Bird Dramas" at Horse Racing events that any other Freepers may know about.
Paging Alfred Hitchcock.
The movie was on this past weekend on one of the cable stations.
Maybe it gave the seagulls the idea.
Iran has nothing to do with this story...The horses were not of Persian origin.
Great old early 80's blitz dance track. The film clip had lots of mirrors in it.
This accident was caused b women! Yes, women, my friends. A few phillies and a bunch of gulls.
Now thats just funny.
BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD..(still laughing).
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