KAKARA STUMBLED, THROWING RIDER.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 41, 18 February 1931, Page 14

KAKARA STUMBLED, THROWING RIDER.

INQUEST HELD INTO DEATH OF DUNFORD

Archibald Olentine Dunford, a six-teen-year-old apprentice jockey, was killed yesterday morning while riding Kakara in training operations at Riccarton. An inquest was opened in the afternoon before the Coroner, Mr E. D. Mosley. Formal evidence of identification was given by Cressy William Dunford, stable hand, a brother of deceased. George Murray-Aynsley, horse-owner, of 159, Fendalton Road, said that he employed Dunford, who left the stable for the racecourse at 7.50, riding a mare. When the animal was going at a fair canter towards the centre of the course she seemed to stumble in a dip between two tracks. The lad was pulling at her when she stumbled and was jerked forward, his weight on the mare’s head apparently forcing her to her knees The lad was pitched ovfcr in front of the horse, but his foot stuck in the stirrup and he was dragged for two chains. The mare was bounding and trying to get away, so that it was quite possible that she hit the rider with her hoof. The youth was seriously injured about the head and legs, and was unconscious. He died before the arrival of a doctor. Richard Skerten, a labourer in the employ of the Canterbury Jockey Club, gave similar evidence as to what occurred. The lad. he said, received several bumps on the head when being dragged. The Coroner returned a verdict that the apprentice died from injuries received when the mare stumbled and dragged him along for some distance. While being dragged he sustained head and leg injuries which caused his death.