Conditional jockey Rex Dingle suffered a fractured Vertebra after falling at Ffos Las on Tuesday but trainer Anthony Honeyball has came out and said he has not suffered any other serious injuries.
Dingle was riding for the trainer on Soulsaver in the 2 mile 6f handicap hurdle at the Welsh track when the horse and rider crashed to the ground at the fourth flight.
The rider stayed down and immediately it looked bad news for Dingle who was taken to Hospital straight away and after undergoing an x-ray it revealed he had broken a bone in the lower part of his neck.
Unfortunately there was even worse news for the horse Soulsaver who suffered a fatal injury from the fall and will be a big loss to the Anthony Honeyball yard.
(Credit Racing Post) The trainer said: I've spoken to Rex a couple of times and he has a fracture to his C7 in the lower part of his neck. I think things are looking okay at the minute, there is no talk of operations right now and he has had an MRI scan to ascertain whether he's able to sit up.
"The next step is to get him sitting up and then move him to Cardiff or somewhere closer to home. Hopefully he'll be out for somewhere around a couple of months but it's too soon to say right now."
Last year was the Conditional riders first full season as a jockey and during the 2018-19 year he made a name for himself picking up 32 winners with 10 of those victories coming for trainer Honeyball who was one of few to take a chance on Dingle.
Honeyball added: "Rex has been brilliant for us, beyond anything else he's just great to have in the yard.
"He's really disciplined and really works hard. The horses run for him and there's plenty of improvement still to come especially with an attitude like his."
Rex Dingle has now got his claim down to 5lb from the original 10lb and this season looked a top contender for the Conditional jockeys championship but Honeyball now fears that this setback may halt that opportunity.
He added: "It's unfortunate because he had a good number of winners last season and already had three on the board this season. The hope was he could get some momentum going through the summer and get himself in position for a tilt at the champion conditional title.
"He seems fine and it only appears to be a small setback but you never like to be too certain with these things."