Peter Snowden should have been celebrating after Grand Prairie’s Up And Coming Stakes victory but instead the mood was subdued after a heart-stopping incident in the straight which led to Tyreek and jockey Dylan Gibbons crashing through the running rail.
Packed tightly approaching the 300m, James McDonald aboard Providence and Tom Sherry on the winner both attempted to go for the same run.
The two horses ahead of them, leader Crown The King and Aerodrome, both made slight shifts out and in respectively and after some heavy jostling, Providence was shouldered back to the inside, ricocheting into Tyreek, who fell.
Gibbons escaped serious injury and walked back to the jockeys’ room, while Tyreek was taken to Randwick Equine Centre with a leg injury.
A reserved Snowden said he was pleased to see Grand Prairie land a deserved stakes win but felt for connections of Tyreek.
“He’s done a good job and he deserved a nice race,” Snowden said of the winner.
“I’m glad he’s won. It was just unfortunate with the incident today.
“He has been racing well and he relaxed super, which was great, and he was good at the end which was good to see. It’s a good result.”
Snowden made the decision to remove winkers from Grand Prairie’s gear to help him settle in the run at what was his first test beyond 1200m.
The move proved a masterstroke but what path the colt takes for the rest of the spring remains up in the air.
“I will have to think about that. Naturally if he ran well today I would think about the Golden Rose for him but I just need to see how he’s pulled up and see how things are,” he said.
“He is very genuine and he ran the 1300 right out today which was good to see.”
Stewards opened an inquiry into the fall on Saturday but had yet to finalise their investigations at the time of writing.
