Artic Blast, who drifted out from the rails, came into the path of
Onegina. The latter clipped the heels of Artic Blast, causing Alford to
be unseated. Winsons, who was full of running at this stage, ran into
Onegina and jockey Aadesh Kumar too was thrown off from his mount.To
Alford’s bad luck, Winsons fell and rolled onto him and it took a few
minutes before the jockey was extricated. The scene looked ghastly but
luckily Alford who seemed to have borne the brunt of the accident,
escaped with only a collar bone fracture while Aadesh Kumar was badly
shaken up. Artic Blast, who caused this chain reaction, went on to beat
Snob Value by a whisker but was subsequently disqualified following a
Stewards enquiry.
Jockey Imran Khan who is in the eye of the storm as only last week he
was suspended for his bumping match with Tauseef Ahmed, rode Arctic
Blast. However, this time out, Imran Khan made an earnest attempt to
correct the drift but Artic Blast veered out under pressure and ran into
favourite Onegina who was being driven out to gain ground. The
unfortunate twist brought about a topsy-turvy result.
The Stipendiary Stewards, who had erred in not ordering a Stewards
enquiry on the last occasion when Southern Charge was disqualified, were
quick to act this time. The Stewards enquiry sealed the fate of Artic
Blast as the winner could not hope to keep the race after causing such a
bad accident by the dangerous drift. Whether the Stewards would consider
Imran Khan’s riding as dangerous and hand him a separate sentence
remains to be seen as the matter is still under consideration.
The accident also highlighted the lack of preparedness of Bangalore Turf
Club to handle racing accidents. There was some delay before the
stretcher could be rushed to take the injured jockeys to the ambulance.
What was worse was that all sorts of people were allowed to run on to
the track and Aadesh Kumar was carried off by a few people. Such a thing
can cause serious damage to the injured especially if the fall has
caused a spinal injury. The need for paramedics to handle such
situations has always been highlighted but overlooked for some strange
reasons. What is of paramount importance is for the jockeys to be
shifted without being shaken as clumsy handling by untrained people can
be extremely dangerous to the injured riders.
