Death toll mounts for women jockeys

Nine of the past 10 deaths of jockeys in Australia have involved women, with the latest involving Melanie Tyndall on the weekend.

Constable Melanie Tyndall. Picture: Glenn Campbell

Nine of the past 10 deaths of jockeys in Australia have involved women, with the latest fatal fall involving Melanie Tyndall on the weekend.

The 32-year-old died on Saturday after falling from a horse during a race in the Northern Territory. Her death came just a day after Mikaela Claridge, 22, died after a routine training incident in the Melbourne suburb of Cranbourne.

Thoroughbred Racing Northern Territory CEO Andrew O’Toole said Tyndall’s death on Saturday had shattered the tight-knit NT racing community.

“It’s really hard to take when we lose one of our own,” Mr O'Toole told Sky Thoroughbred Racing.

“We are a small community of less than 20 jockeys.”

Tyndall was engaged to her partner Tony Harris and last year graduated as a police constable.

Acting NT Police Chief Commissioner Michael Murphy said Tyndall was widely respected and her family were being supported by police.

“Melanie had forged deep and strong ties in our small community and police are providing every possible support to her family,” he said.

Races in Alice Springs were cancelled yesterday out of respect, while jockeys wore black armbands at Memsie Stakes Day at Melbourne’s Caulfield racecourse on Saturday.

Racing Victoria’s chief medical officer, Gary Zimmerman, said the deaths of Tyndall and Claridge were awful.

“Any racing death is one too many and it is hard to imagine you can go to work and not come home,” he said.

“To have two such tragic events happen in such a short time, everybody feels it.”

Dr Zimmerman said more women than ever were becoming jockeys but he said he was still treating more men for injuries.

“The injuries that we see in jockeys vary a lot, from simple bruises to major fractures,” he said.

“We’ve got a lot more female jockeys in the industry now, but if anything I think I see more of the males than the females.”

Nine out of the 10 past jockey deaths have been women, with Donna Philpot, Darren Jones and Riharna Thomas passing away in 2017. Frederike Ruhle and Liz Rice died at Caulfield in 2015 while Caitlin Forrest, Carly-Mae Pye and Simone Montgomerie died in 2014.