JOCKEY LOSES DAMAGES CLAIM A former jump jockey who sued two fellow riders for causing a fall which ended his career today lost his claim for damages. In the first case of its kind Mick Fitzgerald and Adrian Maguire were sued for negligence by 36-year-old Peter Caldwell, who has not ridden since breaking his back in the fall at Hexham in 1994. Today at the High Court sitting in Leeds, Mr Justice Holland said the two jockeys were guilty of lapses of care in their riding but this did not constitute the recklessness or intentional poor riding needed to prove negligence. 'This incident reflected the cut and thrust of serious horseracing. In theory avoidable but in practice something that is bound to occur from time to time, no matter how careful is the standard of riding. The statistics underline this view.' The case was originally heard in Manchester in December when Maguire, 29, and Fitzgerald, 30, were said to have cut in front of another rider, Derek Byrne, causing his horse, Royal Citizen to stumble. Byrne was unseated and brought down Caldwell`s mount, Fion Corn, leaving the jockey, from Warrington, Cheshire, with spinal and head injuries. Both Maguire on the winner Master Hyde and Fitzgerald, who was riding Mr Bean, told the court they did not know Byrne was there and assumed his horse had dropped back after jumping the penultimate hurdle. Both jockeys were found guilty of careless riding by the stewards and suspended for three days after the incident on September 3, 1994. Tim Kerr, for the two jockeys, said it would be fundamentally wrong if the careless riding was equated to negligence in law. Mr Justice Holland said he was sorry for Caldwell and added that the prospect of court-ordered compensation for injury sustained while riding in jumps races had always been speculative. He said: 'No other like claim has been prosecuted in this country. Injury was part of the life that he chose and enjoyed - what was unusual and untoward was its seriousness in respect of which he has my full sympathy.' Mr Justice Holland granted Caldwell leave to appeal against the verdict and quoted an Australian judge, Mr Justice Chesterman: '`Thoroughbred horse racing is a competitive business, which is played for high stakes. Its participants are large animals ridden by small men at high speed in close proximity. '`The opportunity for injury is abundant and the choices available to jockeys to avoid or reduce risks are limited. '`It is, no doubt, for these reasons that claims for damages arising out of horse racing have been rare and are likely to remain so`.' None of the jockeys involved attended today`s hearing.
