Critically injured Oakbank Racing legend John Glatz has surgery after trying to save Woodside house from bushfire
Supporters have rallied around critically-injured Oakbank Racing Club identity John Glatz, who has had surgery but remains in a coma after being badly burnt trying to save his Woodside property from the devastating bushfire.
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The Australian racing community and well-wishers from across the globe have rallied for Oakbank racing club legend John Glatz who is in a fight for his life.
Mr Glatz remains in a critical but stable condition in the Royal Adelaide Hospital with burns to 60 per cent of his body after trying to save his home and livestock from the Cudlee Creek inferno.
Recently retired South Australian champion jockey Clare Lindop and Australian’s current champion jumps jockey Steven Pateman are among those that have expressed their support for a full recovery.
The 73-year old was found collapsed on his Woodside property on Friday where the bushfire had destroyed his home and another house on the landholding.
Mr Glatz was placed in an induced coma at Mount Barker by an ambulance crew before being transported to the RAH.
He remains in that condition.
A family member told The Advertiser he had surgical skin grafts on Friday night and faces further extensive surgery today (Sunday).
The Oakbank Racing Club posted that its former chairman of more than 25 years was in “everyone’s thoughts and prayers”.
Long-time Oakbank committee member Steve Charlton expressed the thoughts of many about his colleague.
“If anyone can overcome this Glatzy can. He’s one tough old bugger,” he wrote.
Mr Glatz, who holds a trainer’s licence, has been a leading Australian racing administrator for several decades. He was central to discussions around the sale of the SA TAB by the Olsen government in 2002 that returned autonomy to racing.
He was also at the forefront of the significant changes to racing’s corporate governance after the implementation of recommendations from the Bentley Report in 2008.
He has been closely aligned in his passionate support for the continuation of jumps racing with Frances Nelson QC, who as the chair of Thoroughbred Racing SA is head of the sport and a near neighbour of Mr Glatz in the Adelaide Hills.
Hundreds of Mr Glatz’s supporters Including from the US, UK, Ireland and Vietnam have placed comments on his Facebook page and that of his daughter Lucy Brooks.
They include best wishes from local trainers and jockeys and the Wheeler family in NZ.
Trainer John Wheeler has won the Oakbank’s legendary Great Eastern Steeplechase a record nine times and is closely associated with Mr Glatz, who has been both controversial and colourful in his time in racing.
He paid a high price three years ago for an on-air outburst where he called then Racing Minister Leon Bignell a “dickhead” on Channel 7 at the Oakbank Easter carnival.
The fine imposed by TRSA stewards of $5000, was the highest penalty for a SA racing official in the history of the sport.
Just three months later Mr Glatz retired as Oakbank chairman handing the reins to lawyer Barney Gask.”