A jockey given a nine-week ban for 'reckless riding' over an incident which fatally injured a rival has revealed his devastation at what happened.
Sam Weatherley said he has to live knowing that the "freak accident" led to the death of Taiki Yanagida. Nicknamed 'Tiger', the sportsman fell heavily in a race on August 3 and passed away six days later.
Yanagida, 28, suffered brain and spinal injuries when his horse Te Atatu Pash came down at Cambridge racecourse in New Zealand. The Japanese-born rider was caught underneath the thoroughbred and another runner who could not avoid him in the split-second incident.
The Racing Integrity Board ruled Weatherley's 'reckless riding' led to Yanagida's fall last month.
Weatherley told a hearing which looked into the circumstances: "Unfortunately, it's just a freak accident and something that I've got to live with for the rest of my life. It's very, very unfortunate."
The case, reported by the New Zealand Herald, heard that in running, Weatherley's mount Jack Hammer made contact with Darren Danis' horse Goodo Jo, who swung her legs out.
Te Atatu Pash, ridden by Yanagida, appeared to make contact, tripped up and the jockey was thrown from the saddle.
Yanagida was rushed to Waikato Hospital where he later died with his mother and one of his two sisters at his bedside. He was the first jockey to lose his life following a race fall in the country since Rebecca Black at Gore in December 2016.
Weatherley's co-counsel Philip Cornege said some in the industry felt his client resuming racing was 'thumbing his nose up' at Yanagida's death.
Cornege added: "He literally had to get back on the horse. Sitting at home trying to cope with what had happened was not good for his mental health."
The hearing was told Weatherley was remorseful and had met Yanagida's mum, contributed to the funeral as well as his grave headstone in Japan.
Weatherley's counsel suggested his actions were careless rather than reckless.
But the Racing Integrity Board statement read: "While a detailed written decision will follow, the adjudicative committee found the reckless riding by Mr Weatherley initiated a series of events that ultimately led to the fall, and subsequent death, of Mr Yanagida."
Following the tragedy, tributes flooded in to the winner of more than 150 races, who achieved success at Group 2, 3 and Listed level.
A newcomer to horse riding at the age of 18, he trained to be a jockey in Australia before he moved to New Zealand, where he worked for Andrew Scott and Lance O'Sullivan. Yanagida had taken a race on the card prior to the accident.
"He wasn't a natural jockey when he first came to us but worked so hard he got better and better," O'Sullivan told the Herald at the time.
