In a horror weekend for the racing community, champion horse Almoonqith and veteran jockey Darren Jones have both lost their lives in unfortunate and tragic circumstances.
A senior statesman of over 30 years in the saddle, Jones was caught up in a three-horse fall at Warialda on Saturday while riding pre-race favourite Montague Clan and was taken away to hospital in an unconscious state.
Jones’ passing was sadly announced later that day in a monumental defeat for racing in New South Wales. Darren Jones had over one thousand wins in the saddle over a long career in the NSW country arena.
Leanne Henry and Melanie Bolwell were the other two jockeys involved in the unfortunate collision but were released from hospital later the same day.
It’s been a massive hit for the racing community with the loss of a superb jockey and a family man with a storied career throughout NSW and Australia.
On the same day, star runner Almoonqith was put down at Randwick after the day’s event were waved off midway through the race.
The Sydney Cup was called off after Almoonqith and Who Shot The Barman went down, forcing stewards to abandon the race with the potential of endangering other rides too great a risk.
Winner of six races and just short of $1 million career prize money, Almoonqith was put down after being taken off the track in a controversial situation, one that had some jockeys fuming that they couldn’t continue.
As the two runners came down passing the post on the first lap, the stewards made the call to abandon the race in danger of further incident.
Veteran rider Damien Oliver, who took part in the Cup, stated his frustration in the ‘no result’ call, claiming that the rest of the field were in no danger to finish the race.
“There is a lot of money at stake for all the owners and everyone involved,” he said.
“It’s a joke, if it had been on the home turn that is a totally different story… but it is after the race so what effect is it going to have.”
Chief steward Marc Van Gestel backed up his decision in a difficult situation.
“Having regard to the condition of Almoonqith as the field made their way to the 1600m mark, the stewards discussed with the official starter who was positioned near the 800m in respect to the running of the Sydney Cup, as to whether or not the race would continue,” Van Gestel said.
“We are satisfied in the circumstances that given the decision we made at the 1600m to call the race a no-race, that that is, in fact, the decision of the stewards.”
Fellow jockey Corey Brown, who was on top of Polarisation and continued to ride after the incident, backed up Oliver’s comments.
“I didn’t know it was a no race until I turned around and started to come back,” he said.
“It is bulls**t. We could have gone around them. By the time I got to the incident we were 150m past the winning post, I’d pulled up to a trot by that stage.”
“Then I come back and they said it is a no race – how does that work?”
Stewards have thrown up the idea of possibly re-running the race in the near future, but nothing has been confirmed.
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