Benalla races abandoned after falls in opening race

Following the incident, stewards and members of the club inspected the track, which had been deemed a heavy-8 rated surface following 18mm of rain overnight during Benalla’s freak storm.

Stewards deemed the surface safe for racing, however, jockeys voted in favour of abandoning the meeting seven votes to four.

King, who rode Walltowall, suffered a broken nose and lost a tooth after he appeared to slip and fall from his horse while leading the opening event around the home turn.

Initial scans cleared him of any shoulder fractures after he spent Sunday night in hospital.

John Keating, the rider of Sharp As Ellie, suffered bruising after he too was dislodged from his mount further back in the field.

Both horses were assessed by the on-course team of vets, with Walltowall cleared of any injury and Sharp As Ellie found to be lame in the near-hind leg.

Benalla Racing Club general manager Cameron Symes said, although stewards and club officials had deemed the track safe to race, he understood why the jockeys had chosen to abandon the meet.

“Safety is paramount in these instances, I believe it shook a few of the jockeys,” Symes said.

“The vision (of the fall) looks a lot nastier than it is and the two jockeys have come away very well for the impact it looked to have caused, especially Lachie who was leading the field, we wish both jockeys a speedy recovery.

“The jockeys are all very close and they’re good mates, they were worried about the safety of everything and after the storm they wanted to see if the track was at fault.

“Stewards have obviously inspected and deemed it safe, there was nothing more as a club we could do.”

No replacement meeting will be added to the race program, however, Racing Victoria will look to divide races where possible to assist affected horses.

An abandoned race fee will be paid to connections with runners in races two to seven.

Racing will return to Benalla on January 29 for the Euroa Cup.