Jerry McGrath spoke to OTB Sports about the accident which forced him to retire from being a jockey.
"Prior to my fall, physically I was in a good way! Plenty of previous injuries, but nothing that was hindering me. Not saying I wanted to go into my 40's. I'd love to have gotten another five or six years out of it, for sure!"
The former Cheltenham Festival winning jockey spoke about the injury that ended his career.
"I was really enjoying the riding, I went to Lingfield that day, I thought, lets go here, we don't have to leave the ground. I had four or five rides and I thought it was going to be an easy payday."
Beware the Bear ridden by jockey Jerry McGrath during the Ladbrokes Winter Carnival Gallops Morning, Newbury Racecourse.The 31 year old raced under the tutelage of Nicky Henderson. McGrath had won over 200 races during his illustrious career as a jockey.
"It was a freak accident, it could have been an awful lot worse, the fact I didn't lose consciousness meant I didn't have a head injury which was a positive. The flip side to that is I remembered everything."
"The horse in front of us stopped quickly. It all became congested. My horse wasn't the biggest, she clipped the horses heel in front of her, and she went down."
"You go from 30 miles per hour and all of a sudden you're rolling around the ground. The horse landed on top of me as well which put the nail in the coffin. It was just very unfortunate."
As a result the three-horse pile-up, he dislocated his hip and shoulder upon impact.
"The hip has been okay but the shoulder has been problems from day one. The nerve damage done there was a lot worse than we hoped or expected. That's probably the main thing that has held me back."
McGrath attempted to come back from the injury but upon his return, he tore his bicep. The injury was linked to his initial accident at Lingfield.
"The surgeons, the doctors; they were all of the opinion that they wouldn't be able to pass me to race ride again."
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