They’re not usually concerned about errant golf balls flying in their face.
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The incident in the 2.20 at Sandown was caught on camera and, while the man who took the dunt survived, it led to a painful looking dismount for the jockey behind him after his horse got spooked.
British jockey Kieren Fox has avoided injury after a freakish incident involving a golf ball in the opening race at Sandown. Fox was at the rear of the field on the John Best-trained Luxford and stood no chance of staying on when his mount jinked in the final furlong, with replays showing a stray golf ball being being kicked up by one of the leaders and pinging off the helmet of Bennett and across the front of Fox. “It could have been worse, imagine if it had hit Charlie in the face”.
The straight sprint chute at the Esher track is adjacent to a pitch and putt course and a ball had found its way onto it, just 100 yards from the winning post.
On closer inspection of a replay of the five-furlong contest, the two-year-old filly, who was making her second start, had become distracted by a stray golf ball on the course which appeared to be thrown up by eventual victor Big Lachie, before ricocheting off the helmet of Charlie Bennett on Stanhope and across the sightline of Fox’s mount. “The reality is that you’ve got four or five inches of grass there, and as the track is next to the course, you’re going to get balls and you often have to step on them to know they are there”.
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“We take all reasonable measures to remove balls – apart from me and the head groundsman walking the track, you’ve got another team of 14 guys going over it in the morning”, said course manager Andrew Cooper.
