INTERNATIONAL riding star Walter Swinburn last night was under observation in the Prince Of Wales Hospital's intensive care unit after a sickening fall from debutant Liffey River in the griffin race which opened another drama packed meeting at Sha Tin yesterday. Swinburn, rider of the great but ill-fated English Derby winner Shergar as well as the winner of just about every big race there is to be won in Europe, suffered a broken left shoulder, three fractures to his left collarbone, multiple fractures to his ribs.
Doctors were also forced to perform a minor operation to drain fluid from Swinburn's skull to prevent a pressure build-up.
But the major problem is with his lungs in which blood and fluid accumulated.
His lungs were also badly bruised. Swinburn was conscious when he was stretchered from the track but had passed out by the time he reached the nearby hospital and then drifted in and out of consciousness for the next two and a half hours. He is expected to be in intensive care for at least three days and has no chance of riding again in the territory this season. He was due to ride into early March. He will also be lucky to be back in time for the start of the British Flat season which opens later next month. Philip Johnston, the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club's director of racing, immediately followed Swinburn to the hospital to check on his condition.
He returned to the course to say: 'The main concern is with his lungs. It was only a small operation to insert a drain for the fluid and that should not be a problem. It was just a precautionary measure to stop pressure building up. 'He will not be fit enough to ride here again this season and he may not recover in time for the start of the British Flat season, either. 'He will be kept in intensive care for three days but this is for observation.' The John Moore-trained Liffey River, a bitterly ironic spare ride for Swinburn who had originally been pencilled in for the mount on the Lawrie Fownes-trained Big Treasure, veered badly left from the extreme outside barrier and then ducked straight back across the course to smash into the inside rail.
Swinburn was thrown from his mount, turned through 180 degrees, and in the melee crashed heavily against the metal stanchions which support the aluminium running rails. Unlike the rails they are sturdy structures and it was when he bounced from the ground and smashed into them that the injuries almost certainly occurred. Despite being one of the world's elite jockeys, Swinburn has suffered a terrible run of injuries and ill luck on his regular Hong Kong stints. He was thrown from Shinnecock Hills in a bizarre incident at the start of the Classic Trial last week, a carbon copy of which was repeated by the Greg Childs-ridden Millennium Reigns in yesterday's final event, he was lucky to escape serious injury when falling at Happy Valley last season and the season before punctured a lung in a trackwork spill which kept him out for six weeks.