‘There are very few occupations indeed, where at least one ambulance follows you about while you are working.’ For John H Payne, ‘that says it all regarding the dangers associated with their chosen profession.’
In John H Payne’s “Their Last Ride, the Fallen Jockeys of Australia” he states ‘the purpose of this volume is not to reflect on the grief or sorrow on the part of those who have given their lives to riding racehorses, but rather to reflect on them as individuals, and to honour them for the ultimate sacrifice each has made.’
Congratulations to John Payne in compiling this magnificent historic register of 938 heroic sportsmen and women whose sporting lives ended in death, and now have been ‘brought back to life.’
John has published the result of his 8-year research, recorded for the first time in this informative 630 page soft-covered book, of all of the jockeys’ deaths. Fittingly, in memory of each and every one of them he has compiled a small record about each jockey.
Who Jason OLIVER
When 2002 – October 30th
Where Belmont Park, WA
How
The 33-y-o only brother of then leading Australian jockey, Damien Oliver, while riding the 2-y-o galloper, Savage Cabbage in a 400-metre trial at the Belmont racecourse on Tuesday, October 29th, was thrown from the saddle when the horse broke a leg at the winning post, skidding down the track with Jason trapped beneath the animal. Oliver was removed to the Perth Hospital, where he died the following day having never regained consciousness, with his mother, Mrs Pat Oliver, and brother at his bedside.
The following Tuesday, his 30-y-o brother, Damien Oliver won the second of his three Melbourne Cups, on the Irish-trained galloper, Media Puzzle, with an emotion-packed crowd giving him a resounding ovation for his pluck and courage and Damien dedicating the win to his late brother. He then returned to Perth the following morning to attend his brother’s funeral at noon that day, with the burial taking place at the Karrakatta Cemetery in the same plot as his father, Ray Oliver, who had died in the Perth Hospital after a racing accident at Kalgoorlie on August 30th,1978 after five horses had fallen in the Boulder Cup.
Jason Oliver, who commenced riding in 1984, had ridden nearly 700 winners to the time of his death, with about half in the city.
Who Leanne GOODWIN
When 1998 – December 7th
Where Roma, Qld.
How
27-y-o single mother, Leanne Goodwin, became the fourth Australian female rider to lose her life in a racing accident when she passed away in hospital on Monday, December 7th. She had sustained head and internal injuries after her mount, Bachelor King, fell in the Class 1 Handicap at Roma, two days earlier.
Goodwin, the previous September, had become the first aboriginal female jockey to have won a metropolitan race in Australia when successful on her father’s horse, Getelion, at Eagle Farm, Brisbane.
By Bernard Kenny