AN AUSTRALIAN racecourse has been fined £135,000 after a 22-year-old jockey was killed while riding in the dark in 2019.
Cranbourne Turf Club Inc, according to 7News, pleaded guilty to one charge of "failing to ensure that persons other than employees were not exposed to health and safety risks arising from the conduct of its undertaking."
Apprentice jockey Mikaela Claridge tragically passed away after a fall in August 2019 when her horse reportedly "became spooked" at the track in Melbourne, according to ABC News.
Reports said recently married Claridge had been riding with a friend at Cranbourne Racecourse in Melbourne, Australia, when she fell.
She was, according to reports, completing trackwork on the sand trails just behind the main training track when she was thrown from her horse.
Claridge tragically passed away at the scene.
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Her riding partner was also thrown from their horse but was unharmed.
The club was sentenced in Melbourne County Court last month.
A WorkSafe investigation found that there were several things at the track that could have spooked a horse in the dark.
They include overhanging tree branches, pooled water and other horses or wildlife.
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The court reportedly heard that Cranbourne Turf Club failed to put "reasonably practicable" measures in place to reduce risks to health and safety – such as only allowing access to the track during daylight or installing floodlights.
Narelle Beer, WorkSafe health and safety executive director, said: "Although some safety measures such as changing operating hours may seem minor, a failure to implement them can lead to unimaginably painful consequences.
"WorkSafe will continue to investigate and hold accountable anyone who fails in their duty to ensure their workplaces and work practices are safe and without risks to health."
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