Plight of injured jockey hangs over Alderwood victory

The crowds had already began to spill out into the approaching gloom of the surrounding countryside by the time Thomas Mullins’s Alderwood made it a record 14th Irish-trained winner at this week’s Cheltenham Festival.

The history books will make for a pleasing read but winners and losers carried heavy hearts at Prestbury Park yesterday as thoughts turned continually towards JT McNamara, who underwent surgery in Bristol’s Frenchay Hospital.

The amateur jockey sustained a serious neck injury in a first-fence fall on board Galaxy Rock in the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup on Thursday and was airlifted from the course.