SKYE BOGENHUBER'S LUCKY ESCAPE

By Graham Potter | Saturday, September 15, 2012

Jockey Skye Bogenhuber was fortunate to escape serious injury at Ipswich yesterday when the unraced mare Parisian Pearl crashed down heavily in the parade ring after rearing up and becoming unbalanced while trying to rid herself of her rider prior to the second race on the card.

Parisian Pearl showed a distinct dislike for her first racing experience and was a real handful for a couple of minutes before the incident occurred. The four-year-old’s entire mindset seemed to be set on being non-co-operative when asked to go out on the track and her mood got meaner the longer the ‘argument’ lasted.

When she dug her hooves in the indication was that her next move would not be a gentle one. As the clerk of the horse tugged at her one more time, Parisian Pearl reacted by swinging about and then rearing up with sudden, real intensity. When almost at her full height her head swayed to her right. That disturbed the balance of her weight distribution. Parisian Pearl lost its footing and both horse and rider careered downwards and hit the ground hard.

In that split second it took to fall Bogenhuber was at great risk … but, if she was unlucky to have picked up a ride on a horse that had very poor racing manners … she was, in fact, ultimately extremely lucky to be able to walk away from the incident with seemingly only an injured shoulder.

The fact that her impact when hitting the ground was cushioned by a flowerbed when there were much more solid surfaces either side of where she fell was her first lucky break, although she wouldn’t have thought of it that way when lying face down in the foliage. Most importantly though, Parisian Pearl landed next to her, when it had looked for a moment with the angle of the fall that Bogenhuber might disappear under the horse with obvious, possible disastrous consequences.

Thankfully those were not brought into play.

Bogenhuber is as tough as they come. Her injury meant she had to be stood down from her remaining ride of the day, but she later left the track under her own power … sore, but under her own power.

Most jockeys just shrug off a race-fall or an incident of this nature as something that comes with the territory they occupy … and they just get on with things as Bogenhuber, who currently leads the Toowoomba Jockey’s Premiership, will undoubtedly do.

The fact remains though that the type of scene witnessed at Ipswich yesterday is repeated often enough on tracks around Australia and they always serve as a sober reminder of the risks that jockeys take at every race meeting.