Queensland country jockey Shane McGovern is facing the devastating prospect of losing both legs after being trapped beneath a dead horse for six agonising hours at Charters Towers on Wednesday.
Nine-year-old gelding Reformist collapsed without warning during a routine trackwork session, pinning McGovern to the ground and cutting off blood circulation to his legs, racenet.com.au reports.
His wife Kim McGovern eventually discovered him, helpless and alone, just a few hundred metres from their stables after driving to the horrific scene on a mower.
The shattered trainer had no idea her 67-year-old husband was fighting for survival while she went about her daily routine at the Charters Towers stables.
When she finally found him, the image that greeted her was haunting.
The “natural horseman”, whom Kim lovingly described as having “iron balls”, had been trapped since early morning.
“I thought ‘well, that’s Shane, he’ll just go off for a ride’, which is what he does because the horse was supposed to be racing on Monday,” Kim told Racenet on Friday.
“But I’m absolutely kicking myself, and it’s a thing I will never forget. And then this ghoulish little arm comes up, and he says ‘I’m all right’.”
It is believed Reformist died from an aneurysm, dropping instantly beneath McGovern without any of the telltale wobbling that typically precedes a heart attack.
Australian Jockeys’ Association health and safety officer Kevin Ring revealed McGovern had been placed in an induced coma at Townsville Hospital.
“He couldn’t move his legs so that naturally affected his blood circulation and caused nerve damage as well,” Ring said.
“There’s a possibility he may lose one or both legs.”
Surgeons have operated on his thighs but deliberately left the calf areas open to monitor tissue damage and prevent infection.
“He was conscious but they’ve got him on high-powered drugs and he’s hallucinating and then gets a bit hyperventilated,” Kim said.
“They knocked him back out into an induced coma, put the breathing tube back in to give his body a rest and they’ll keep him like that for a couple of days.”
The horror accident capped a black Wednesday for Queensland racing, with two separate falls during Gold Coast jumpouts leaving jockeys Jasper Franklin and Yvette Lewis injured.
Franklin’s Brisbane apprentice premiership dreams were shattered with the news the promising young rider faces six weeks on the sidelines with a broken collarbone.
“As soon as I stood up, I knew something was wrong so I walked over to the rail and laid down,” Franklin said about the fall.
“I pretty much knew I’d broken my collarbone straight away.
“It felt like the paramedics took forever to get to me, just because I was in that much pain. I went through two green whistles before they’d got me off the grass.”
Doctors will reassess Franklin’s injury once the swelling subsides, but early indications suggest he won’t require surgery for the clean break.
Franklin was due to return from a 15-day suspension on Monday and had been building momentum with 20 metropolitan wins this season.
He now trails Brisbane’s leading apprentice Jace McMurray by 11 wins (31-20), with the untimely injury effectively ending his premiership challenge.
“It’s pretty much gone now,” he said about his title aspirations.
“But I’m lucky to walk away with just the injury I’ve got. The way I fell, I was lucky not to break my neck.”
Lewis suffered concussion and a tailbone injury after her horse bucked during an earlier jumpout. She was released from hospital later that day.
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