A Queensland jockey remains in critical condition at the Princess Alexandra Hospital after being thrown from her horse at a race meet in Grafton, northern New South Wales, yesterday.
Apprentice jockey Leah Kilner, 24, was riding Stella's Turn in race three when the horse fell in the home straight, dislodging the jockey from her mount.
Racing NSW said Kilner was lapsing in and out of consciousness on the track before being flown to the PA Hospital in Brisbane.
It said Kilner was placed in an induced coma and underwent surgery overnight to relieve pressure on her brain.
The horse was euthanased a short time after the incident.
Ms Kilner's coach, Rob Heathcote, said on Monday there had been little change in her condition.
"She's in a state of coma in probably one of the best brain trauma hospitals in Australia so she's in the right place," Mr Heathcote said.
"She's got a broken collarbone and a couple of broken ribs. But as far as they know they're not concerned with that and there doesn't appear to be any spinal issues.
"She's having a spinal scan later today and the medical team will discuss their course of action with regards to her sedation."
Mr Heathcote said the past 24 hours had been a struggle and spoke to Ms Kilner's character.
"She's only young and we're hoping that her youth is what helps her come through this but she's in a tough environment, a tough industry being a jockey.
"She's very competitive. She wants to win all the time. We love her, even when she has down days there's still that spark about her."
He said there had been an outpouring of support from the racing industry.
"The racing community is unique in the sense that they all come together in times like this," he said.
"It's something that fortunately we don't become accustomed to frequently, but we do know that what Leah does is one of the few professions in the world where an ambulance follows you around and invariably, there's going to be incidents like this."
'She's got a fight ahead of her'
Queensland Jockeys Association president Pam O'Neill said Kilner's family and the horseracing community were in shock.
"The father seems to be dealing as best as he could, I only spoke to him," Ms O'Neill said.
"All our feelings go out to the family, I can only imagine what her mother and father are going through, so we're hoping there's going to be a good outcome.
"I've been speaking to a few of the jockeys and they're all concerned, they're a very tight fold, jockeys, when things happen like this, and we're just praying everything will come out alright, but I think she's got a fight ahead of her."
She said these types of incidents were rare.
"She was coming up the straight and the horse broke its leg and down she went, and apparently the horse laid on her for quite a while before they could move it.
"It's just one of those things. They say it's a dangerous sport, well so is crossing the road, you can get run over anytime."
Racing NSW said it would commence an investigation into the incident in the coming days, including an autopsy of the horse, Stella's Turn.
In February Kilner suffered broken ribs following a fall from a horse.
At the time she said she had been "extremely lucky to walk away with only minimal damage", and would be able to return to riding in a matter of weeks.
Racing NSW postponed the remaining six races on the program after Sunday's incident.
Kilner, an apprentice with Brisbane-based trainer Rob Heathcote, has ridden more than 200 winners during her time in the saddle.
Heathcote told ABC News on Sunday the jockey's mother had accompanied her on the flight from Grafton to the PA Hospital.
Kilner won 46 races during 2021-22 and had been closing in on her best-ever season of 54 winners in 2018-19.
