TOP RIDERS OUT OF ACTION

By Graham Potter | Tuesday, September 29, 2009

The accident in which jockey Jim Cassidy suffered severe injuries to two fingers while gardening has brought the top hoop’s riding career to a full stop for the moment. Cassidy will undergo surgery and only then can the degree of damage be fully evaluated and the delay in his riding activities be determined. It is a sickening development for a rider who has achieved so much and yet still has such a hunger for more success. Cassidy will definitely miss the Spring Carnival.

Jockey Luke Nolan is another rider who will be missing from the big race starting line-up in the coming weeks. Nolan was found guilty of a charge of careless riding in the fourth race at Sandown last Wednesday in an incident which caused jockey Noel Callow to fall from his mount Golden Portrait. Nolan has been suspended for 20 meetings. The suspension commenced at midnight on September 27 and it expires at midnight on October 16. Nolan is currently the leading jockey in Victoria with 24 wins in total. Eleven of those wins have come at Metropolitan venues, which puts Nolan two behind the 13 wins of Metropolitan Premiership leader Craig Williams.
*Michelle Payne has been announced as the replacement rider for Nolan aboard El Segundo in the $500,000, Group 1, Turnbull Stakes (2000m) at Flemington on Saturday.

The 13 meeting suspension handed down to Steven King will stand after King’s appeal against that outcome, incurred on a careless riding charge on Testaguy at Caulfield on Sunday, was dismissed. King thus misses out on the ride on Predatory Pricer in the Group 1, Turnbull Stakes on Saturday. King can return to the saddle on October 9, the day before the Caulfield Guineas.
*Dwayne Dunn has picked up the ride on Predatory Pricer.

Apprentice jockey Daniel Ganderton could be out of action for as much as eight weeks. Ganderton is recovering from a broken leg he suffered in a fall at Newcastle on September 17.

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