Ellis urges more caution from jockeys
Jamaica Jockeys Guild President Shane Ellis is urging jockeys to be careful whenever they go out to ride at Caymanas Park.
Ellis made his comments after jockey Oneil Mullings was hospitalised with a broken collarbone after he fell from MEET JUSTIN in the first race on Saturday.
Mullings was taken to the Spanish Town Hospital and released on Sunday afternoon.
Mullings's fall comes after apprentice jockey Tevin Foster was hospitalised after he was involved in a five-horse collision at the track a week before. Foster has since been released from hospital.
"I just want them to be careful and cautious whenever they go out to ride on the track," Ellis said. "I know that no jockey goes out there to do any jockey any harm, and I can bet my life on that.
"No jockey wants to fall because, with a horse running at that speed, it is very dangerous because if you get a fall it is very hot, and it can cost you your life, as well as another jockey's life."
Ellis said that the injury could keep Mullings out of action for up to six weeks. He said that he is happy that Mullings is now out of hospital and is at home recovering.
"In racing, anything can happen in a split second, but in this incident it was a clipped heel, because his horse clipped the heel of another horse that was in front of him and he and his horse went down," Ellis said. "I just thank God that he is alive and out of the hospital, and he will resume his career once he is healed properly and the doctors give him the all-clear to ride again.
"It is was not anyone's fault why he fell, because it was just bad luck. But these things do happen in racing and we have to just be careful."