Turf Club's major safety review

THE Turf Club has launched a major safety review of the entire horse racing industry which, it is hoped, will help prevent a repeat of last year's tragedies which saw the deaths of jockeys Kieran Kelly and Sean Cleary.

A specially commissioned Safety Review Group announced their findings yesterday after almost six months of deliberations, meetings and submissions. The end result was a document outlining 99 recommendations, the vast majority of which have already been accepted by the Turf Club and many of which will be implemented immediately.

Ranging from the issue of general racecourse safety to the suitability of horses, it is the related problems of dehydration and minimum riding weights as well as that concerning safety equipment and helmets in particular which will be of chief interest.