Champion jockey knocked onto rival horse before hitting the deck in wild moment after start

Top US rider Irad Ortiz was lucky to escape without serious injury after hitting the deck and getting kicked in a wild start to the £740,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup on Sunday. Ortiz, five time winner of the Eclipse Award for outstanding jockey, was riding hotly fancied Mindframe in the prestigious Grade 1 contest at Saratoga.

Yet shortly after the eight runners charged out of the starting gate, there was an almighty coming together which ended with the 9-5 chance Mindframe out of the race and 23-20 favourite Sierra Leone being badly hampered.

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Phileas Fogg seemed to start the mayhem by veering to his left exiting the structure and setting off a chain reaction, causing the horses on his inside to concertina together.

Mindframe was so badly impacted that Ortiz was thrown onto the back of the horse alongside him, White Abarrio. In the process he nearly knocked the grey’s jockey Edgard Zayas off, until Ortiz could stay on no more and fell under the feet of White Abarrio.

Ortiz appeared to get clipped and then take a kick from another horse as Flavien Prat on Sierra Leone tried to avoid the stricken jockey.

Fox Sports TV analyst Laffit Pincay said: “There’s two jockeys on White Abarrio’s back for a moment. Edgard Zayas, I don’t know how he didn’t fall, Irad Ortiz is more on White Abarrio right before he goes out.”

Richard Migliore added: “He is riding piggy back at that point and you can see the strength and athleticism of Irad still trying to pull himself back over onto his horse and you are moving at 40mph.

“He fell awkwardly between them. It looked like he might have got clipped first by White Abarrio and then certainly by Sierra Leone after that.”

In the aftermath to a race won by Antiquarian, a stablemate of Mindframe who was unscathed, the third finisher Phileas Fogg was disqualified and place last.

Ortiz was taken to hospital complaining of pain in his wrist and ribs. He gave up his rides in 11 races at Saratoga on Monday and is expected to return to action on Thursday.