FATALITY AT RACES.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 June 1925, Page 12

FATALITY AT RACES.

DEATH OF A JOCKEY, 1 CRITICISM OF THE HURDLES. NO BEARING ON THE MISHAP. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Dunedin, Last Night. The adjourned inquest concerning the death of Percy Keene, a jockey, who died as a result of injuries sustained through a fall in a hurdle race while riding Captain Sarto on the second day of the Dunedin Jockey Club’s winter meeting at Wingatui, was concluded today. The coroner (Mr. J. R. Bartholomew), in reviewing the evidence, said that it appeared that Captain Sarto failed to rise to the third hurdle, and deceased was thrown and was struck by the hoofs of another horse. The evidence showed, that the hurdles were constructed and erected according to the standard, and similar hurdles were in use in Auckland. The coroner said, criticism had been levelled at the type of hurdle in use at Wingatui, which was rigid, whereas the hurdles at Wellington and Riccarton were non-rigid. He did not think this affected the present case. It appeared to him to have been pure misadventure, and. there was nothing in the racing conditions that contributed to it. There was an element of risk in all sport. The verdict Would be that deceased’s death w r as due to a fractured skull, with the complication of meningitis, caused by being kicked by a horse at the Dunedin Jockey Club’s meeting on June 4.