COCHRANE RECEIVES BRAVERY AWARD

Reluctant hero Ray Cochrane, who pulled fellow jockey Frankie Dettori from the burning wreckage of a fatal plane crash, was today honoured or his bravery by Princess Alexandra.

Cochrane was presented with a Royal Humane Society silver medal during a special ceremony at St James`s Palace, London.

'It`s very, nice - but really, I`m not a hero,' he said. 'People were in trouble and needed help and I was the only one there to do something.'

With Dettori, Cochrane was a passenger in a light aircraft that crashed just after take-off at Newmarket on June 1ST last year.

Despite his own injuries, he dragged Dettori, who had suffered a broken ankle, clear of the wreckage and tried in vain to rescue pilot Patrick Mackey who died in the crash.

Ulsterman Cochrane, 43, has since retired from riding after compounding a serious back injury sustained in the crash which also left him with burns and blurred vision in his right eye.

'I had a bad fall racing but I never had a bad back before the crash - I just compounded the injury and now I`ve been told that, if I fall again, I risk ending up in a wheelchair,' he said.

During a 25-year career, Cochrane won more than 1500 races, including the English and Irish Derbies, the English, French and Irish 1,000 Guineas, and international races such as the Caulfield Cup and Rothman`s International.

The Royal Humane Society silver medal is a top award and is the first to be awarded for more than two years. A gold medal is awarded once a year to the most outstanding winner from a number of Commonwealth countries. Princess Alexandra is the Society`s president.