Advertisement

Saffie Osborne likely out for remainder of year after fall at Windsor

Saffie Osborne riding Pettochside win The Download The tote Placepot App Apprentice Handicap at Goodwood Racecourse on September 23, 2020 in Chichester, England. Owners are allowed to attend if they have a runner at the meeting otherwise racing remains behind closed doors to the public due to the Coronavirus pandemic - Alan Crowhurst /Alan Crowhurst 

Saffie Osborne, the apprentice rider who took a horrible fall on the Flat at Windsor on Monday, has broken her left arm, several ribs and punctured a lung.

Osborne, 18, who still combines eventing and race-riding, rode the ninth winner of her career only an hour and a half before her mount, Zeyzoun, clipped heels and unseated her two furlongs into the race.

She was treated for half an hour on the course before being taken straight to Wexham Park Hospital in Slough.

On Tuesday, after a night in hospital, she was due to undergo an operation to have her arm tidied up and plated.

Her father, former jump jockey and now trainer Jamie Osborne, said: “I was there until 1.00 last night but because of Covid rules I can’t go back so she’s there on her own, poor kid.

“Because of the damage to her lungs she can’t have a general anaesthetic and her arm will have be done under a local anaesthetic. Luckily she has her mother’s bravery, not her father’s – I’d have been screaming at the thought of it.”

He added: “When you watch the fall you’d have settled for what she’s done. You know a bad fall when you see one.”

Sports Briefing
Sports Briefing

Osborne also took some comfort from the timing of the injury. “There could have been considerably worse times to do it too,” he explained.

“The eventing season is over and she was only going to have a few more rides anyway. This year we were just trying to give her as much experience as possible and, while this wasn’t in the plan, she knows now one of the pitfalls but she’ll be alright.

“She was going to Dubai to ride out for Charlie Appleby this winter. She’ll be out of action until Christmas but she can probably still go out there in the New Year and get herself ready for next season.”

There is a treat in store for National Hunt fans at Navan on Wednesday when Tiger Roll, the two-time Grand National winner, runs in a mile-and-three-quarter maiden race on the Flat. He will be ridden by 7lb claimer Sam Ewing.

The abandonment of last April’s Grand National might not have been the worst thing to ever happen to Tiger Roll. Gordon Elliott, his trainer, said he had come back from Cheltenham ‘stiff and sore’ after finishing second to Easysland in the Cross-Country and that they would have had a ‘tough couple of weeks to have got him to Aintree.’

The trainer, who plans to unleash the exciting unbeaten Envoi Allen over fences at Down Royal later this month, added: “He’s in great form. He’s bouncing around. The better the ground the better he is.”