There has always been a saying that jumps jockeys are the bravest of the brave and it was backed up on Tuesday when the Catterick based rider when Alain Cawley revealed he had fractured his pelvis but was going to ride out the rest of his mounts for the day.
Cawley was aboard Swarez for Micky Hammond in a novice handicap chase when the eight-year-old, who was still in with a shout of catching the horses in front, fell three out, suffering a fatal injury.
(Credit Racing Post) Although the rider was left in pain he intended to take part in the last race on the card and said: I went into the ambulance room and spoke to the doctor, who was pulling and poking and asked if I was riding again.
"I said I was, but if it was the next I wouldn't be able to, but I had four hours to wait, so I went to see if it would get better or loosen up.
"But I think someone made the decision that I wasn't riding in the last because I hadn't gone back to see the doctor. I was walking around the weighing room in my riding gear, planning to ride."
He was supposed to team up with he Johnny Farrelly-trained Havana River but the doctors stood him down for the day.
Cawley added: "When I was sitting, the pain was somewhere between nought and one on a scale of one to ten, but when I got up to move it went straight to ten.
"I don't know if the doctor saw me walking and came to the conclusion that I wasn't right, but I heard Johnny Farrelly had been called to the weighing room, so I knew they wouldn't let me ride.
"I had a shower and had gone racing with Brian Hughes, but he was riding in the last, so I jumped in with Conor O'Farrell, who had finished early.
"He brought me back to my car, which was parked on the Leeds side of Wetherby, but we stopped for a coffee about an hour and a half into the journey and I knew then I wouldn't be riding tomorrow.
"I was driving my car and rang the BHA's doctor Jerry Hill, who said he'd sleep better if I got an x-ray, so [former jockey] Finian O'Toole took me to the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, which isn't too far from me.
"They decided they weren't going to x-ray me, but send me for a CT scan.
"I've broken my pelvis, two fractures in front and a break behind. We'll aim for two months. It's very fresh at the minute and I'm hoping it will be two months because as far as pelvis breaks go, I think I'm in the more lenient category if there is such a thing. You can't really get a mild break of the pelvis, but it's as mild as they go apparently.
"I don't need an operation and I don't have a cast on."