Rookie Hastings jockey and life-long horse lover Katie Bothamley was last night still unconscious with mysteriously little sign of recovery after she was injured in a race fall in Wanganui on Thursday.
The 17-year-old, who came from Gisborne to ride for Hastings trainer Diane Sergeant eight months ago, fell from Hastings maiden Rancherie in the second race.
The ride, for Hastings trainer John Sullivan, was her only race on the card, her first outside her trainer's stable, and only the eighth in a career which started with a race at Hastings just nine weeks earlier.
Brother and fellow jockey Daniel, who has ridden about 17 winners in just over one full season, gave up his two mounts for the day to be with his sister, missing a third-placed ride on Hastings trainer Grant Cullen's Reckless Ace just 30 minutes after his sister fell.
Their mother, Tina Bothamley, was watching the fateful race on television at her home in Gisborne. She had just 10 minutes to get to the airport to catch a plane after being told of the seriousness of the situation.
She said last night from Wanganui her daughter, in intensive care in hospital, had been taken out of an induced coma during the day but there had been little response, despite scans showing no sign of brain damage.
Several family members had been at her bedside, but last night had no idea of what the future held for the teenager who has been riding horses since she was six. Throughout her childhood, her pony riding and dressage was better than average.
"Her bedroom is full of cups and ribbons," Mrs Bothamley said. "No room for wallpaper in there."
"Katie has lived and breathed horses. If she could have them in her bedroom, she would, and she's the sort of girl who, if it was pouring with rain at two or three in the morning, would duck outside to put the covers over them."
How the fall happened won't be clear until after an investigation, but Mrs Bothamley said that from talking to other riders, it appeared Katie's saddle may have slipped and she fell trying to pull the horse up, crashing into the path of the horses behind her.
"There are hoof marks on her face and down her back, and she has lost part of her ear," Mrs Bothamley said. Even is she makes a quick and full recovery, it could be several months before she is allowed to race again.
She will miss next week's two-day Poverty Bay Turf Club meeting in her old home town, where there had been big hopes of her winning for the first time.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
Latest from Hawkes Bay Today
Girl foils sex offender by using his phone to save evidence and summon help
Stephen Wayne Beattie hid phone in girl's bedroom to make videos of her.