Vincent Ho Chak-yiu, Zac Purton, Angus Chung Yik-lai and Keith Yeung Ming-lun spent the night in Prince of Wales Hospital after an afternoon of carnage at Sha Tin on Sunday.
All four jockeys have been ruled out of Wednesday night’s dirt fixture at the same track after suffering injuries of varying degrees during two falls.
Ho was the first to hit the turf, taking a nasty tumble when Oldtown appeared to clip heels as the jockey attempted to drive his mount through a tight gap near the finish of the Class Four TVB Po Leung Kuk Gala Spectacular Handicap (1,200m).
Ho could be sidelined for the longest of the quartet, having potentially suffered fractures in his neck and shoulder region.
“He’s awake, he’s coherent and he has full limb movement. It doesn’t appear that he has sustained serious injuries but there are some potential injuries that are being monitored,” Andrew Harding, the Jockey Club’s executive director of racing, said.
“The medical team will make an assessment over the next few days about what will be involved in his recovery, but it’s certainly likely that he will require at least several weeks’ rest.”
It was the latest fall in what has been a wretched couple of years for Ho, with the jockey fracturing a T5 vertebra in an off-season incident in Japan in 2023, and more recently missing further time after a pair of tumbles on home soil.
Three races after Ho’s mishap, Purton, Chung and Yeung hit the turf in a horror three-horse pile up in the ninth event.
Chung’s mount, Legend St Paul’s, broke down in the home straight during the Class Three TVB Midlife, Sing & Shine 3 Handicap (1,800m), falling into the path of Silvery Breeze under Purton and the Yeung-ridden Lupo Solitario.
Yeung suffered some bruising to his upper thigh, while Purton was nursing a dislocated toe on his left foot and Chung some bruising to his face and upper body.
Legend St Paul’s was humanely euthanised, while the other gallopers escaped serious injury.
“[Chung] was taken to hospital for further imaging and I don’t have the results of that yet, but he seems in good order,” Harding said. “There’s nothing to indicate he’s seriously injured.”
Purton was undergoing further scans on potential ankle and knee injuries and Hong Kong’s champion jockey may face a race against time to partner the world’s best sprinter, Ka Ying Rising, in the Group One Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup (1,400m) on February 23.
The race nine incident brought back memories of the shocking fall in the 2021 Group One Hong Kong Sprint (1,200m), in which Purton suffered fractures to his wrist, ribs, nose and foot.
The quartet’s absence from Wednesday night’s meeting has prompted the Jockey Club to lift the suspensions of Andrea Atzeni and Alexis Badel to ensure there are enough riders available.
Looking ahead to Sunday’s fixture, star British couple Tom Marquand and Hollie Doyle will be flown in to ensure trainers and owners ample choice of jockeys.
Inquiries into both falls have been adjourned to allow stewards time to interview the riders involved.
The incidents again bring into focus the dangers faced by jockeys, and Harding confirmed they came only hours after a safety discussion he and chief steward Marc van Gestel had with the riding ranks.
“Obviously the safety of riders is paramount and we thought it was timely to have a conversation with them just to reinforce that we do feel there’s some scope for some greater care to be taken,” Harding said. “That was a conversation that took place with the jockeys this morning and they took that on board.
“There’s no connection [to today’s incidents], it was just something Marc and I discussed – we felt it was timely to have a conversation with them just to say that we have seen some developments over the last few months that aren’t as good as they should be and should be addressed.”
