Racing: Cup winner being moved to spinal unit after fall

Auckland Cup-winning apprentice jockey Gemma Sliz is to be transferred to the Middlemore Hospital spinal unit today following a race fall at Ruakaka.

Sliz, 23, was last night in Whangarei Hospital with three fractured vertebrae after she was dumped from her mount, Centennial Court, in a maiden race at the Auckland Racing Club's meeting held at Ruakaka, near Whangarei, on Saturday.

Sliz said the three fractured vertebrae were in her lower back and she had also fractured her right foot.

She said she was being transferred to the spinal unit for further inspection of her injuries but was able to move her legs.

"I can move my legs and that, but I'm not allowed to get up or anything," Sliz said last night. "I have to stay lying down."

Sliz, who rode Upsetthym to victory in the group one $350,000 Auckland Cup (3200m) at Ellerslie on January 1, said she was "very, very sore" but was confident she would ride again.

"I'm okay to ride again. It's just going to be a long time."

Sliz, who is apprenticed to Upsetthym's trainer, Karen Fursdon, at Matamata, said she could recall the fall and felt her mount panicked when getting into tight quarters.

"I'm getting squashed in the middle. Somebody has to give or somebody's going to end over the rail.

"I gave and I was the one that ended up on the deck."

Stipendiary steward Alan Coles said the incident was accidental.

Coles said Centennial Court bumped into a horse after rolling inwards and bounced into the hindquarters of a horse on her outside, at the same time clipping that horse's heels and falling.

"You couldn't blame anyone else," Coles said.

"It was just one of those incidents that happen.

"If you had to blame anybody, you would have to blame the horse that Gemma was on.

"Nobody else moved."

- NZPA