MY MIRACLE ESCAPE FROM THIS PILE-UP
Jockey Steve Drowne talks to Sportsmail
JOCkEy Steve Drowne expressed enormous relief at avoiding serious injury in the kempton Park pile-up which left Freddie Tylicki in intensive care and Jim Crowley and Ted Durcan injured.
Drowne — who, incredibly, was riding yesterday — escaped with barely a scratch from Monday’s horrific four-horse incident which saw Group One-winning pilot Tylicki taken by air ambulance to St George’s Hospital in Tooting with a suspected spinal injury.
Champion Flat jockey Crowley was also taken to the major trauma unit at St George’s because of similar concerns, but was later released with a broken nose. Crowley yesterday thanked well-wishers on his Facebook page and gave his support for Tylicki. ‘I’d just like to say thank you to everyone for your kind messages,’ he wrote.
‘Apart from a broken nose and feeling like I’ve been run over by a truck I’m okay. I’m very, very lucky. Let’s hope to God Freddie is okay.’
Tylicki remained in a stable condition in intensive care last night. The four horses involved were unscathed.
Drowne, who rode in two races in Wolverhampton yesterday, was hugely grateful he escaped the carnage after his mount Skara Mae was brought down.
He said: ‘I work on the assumption that every 500 or so rides, I’m going to have a fall. If I get away with it like on Monday, it is a massive bonus.
‘I know I’m probably going to have more falls, that’s life as a jockey. Normally, you know you are going to go down, you just curl up and hope nothing is going to go over the top of you. you don’t have time to feel terrified, thankfully, everything happens too quickly.
‘Events like this should remind everyone that we are not infallible and I believe in recent years, jockeys are definitely riding tighter.
‘They are not as careful as they once were and that is because they are under so much pressure to win in every single race.
‘They race very tight on the all-weather because of the level of prize money. Over the last five years, it is tougher for jockeys because owners and trainers are putting us under more and more pressure to win and be competitive.’
Drowne, who himself has spent significant time on the sidelines when misdiagnosed for glandular fever of the heart, is one of the elder statesmen within the riding ranks and revealed he had never known his contemporaries so affected by an incident like Monday’s.
He continued: ‘The mood in the weighing room afterwards was as subdued as I’ve ever experienced as a rider.
‘Everyone was very quiet and no-one really wanted to go back out and ride as they knew the lads that were left out there were badly hurt.
‘I was the lucky one, Ted (Durcan) has a fractured ankle and Jim thought he had broken his neck when I got to him. When Jim was on the track he said: “I can’t believe it” and all I could say to him was: “Look if it happened six weeks ago before you became Champion, then it would have been a disaster”.
‘I said to him: “It’s happened, you’re still conscious, you’ll be alright” even if at the time he thought he had broken his neck.
‘I just held his neck still and left the doctors to deal with Freddie as he was more of a priority. All our thoughts and prayers are with Freddie. It looks as though it’s going to be a long road back for him and he is at the forefront of our thoughts.’