‘Everyone started screaming when they saw it’ – jockey Chantal Sutherland on her horror injury
Horse racing is a dangerous sport and jockeys know just how risky their profession is.
However, the last thing you’d expect to cause you injury while on a horse is geese.
Sutherland, a Grade 1-winning jockey, had just finished fourth aboard Haurki in the English Channel Stakes at Gulfstream.
As she was pulling up, geese wandering across the turf course spooked her horse, causing Sutherland to be dumped off.
Fellow jockey Edgar Perez was also flung off his mount, but he was far more fortunate than Sutherland, who suffered horror injuries.
She told Paulick Report: “I saw them before the horse did, and I grabbed the horse to stop him.
“Then he saw them and put the brakes on and ducked to his right, so I slingshotted off the horse.
“At the time it happened, I didn’t feel anything, so when I got up, everyone started screaming.
“I looked down because I thought I broke my collarbone, but then found my left arm was just dangling.”
The geese, who live in the infield lake and cross the racetracks to get fed, have been complained about multiple times by jockeys.
Sutherland was hoping to ride at Monmouth Park this summer but that plan is firmly on hold, as she will be on the sidelines for around three months.
Picking up just over £2 million in prize money in 2021, her best year since 2011, things were going well in 2023 too.
She rode at the International Jockey Challenge – the undercard for the £16.2 million Saudi Cup – earlier this year against the likes of Frankie Dettori.
She had won 19 races from 146 rides domestically, with prize money totalling £545,846.