May 24, 2016
SYDNEY (AFP) - Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Michelle Payne is undergoing tests in hospital after falling during a race and complaining of acute abdominal pain, sparking fears of internal injuries, racing officials said Tuesday.
Australia's Payne -- the first woman to win the 155-year-old Melbourne Cup last year -- tumbled from her horse Dutch Courage at Mildura in northwest Victoria state on Monday and was taken to a nearby hospital.
While early scans did not detect anything, doctors decided she should be taken to the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne for further tests, Victorian Jockeys Association's chief executive Des O'Keeffe said.
Payne tweeted that her pancreas and liver were being assessed, and posted an image of her bruised abdomen.
"At the Alfred Hospital this morning, she's undergone an extensive lot of scans of her abdomen after complaining of really acute pain," O'Keeffe told AFP, adding that the 30-year-old was "heavily sedated and heavily medicated".
"The doctors will decide today if and what other steps they need to take to try and give her some relief in that area.
"It appears that the horse might have accidentally stood on her and whilst it hasn't done fractures to her legs or arms or anything like that, certainly it may have done some damage internally."
O'Keeffe said he expected Payne to be "bitterly disappointed" at what happened, but added that she could have been more seriously hurt.
"Anything she's done sounds like it will be fixable. Luckily it's not a head trauma, not a neck or spinal trauma," O'Keeffe said.
"Sure, internal (injuries) would be serious depending on what they find but it can always be worse."
Before her fall, Payne on Monday won two Mildura races on the horses Chamois Road and Matamanoa, trained by her brother Patrick Payne.
Payne comes from a family steeped in the racing industry. She has suffered a litany of injuries including falling head-first from a horse when she was just 18, fracturing her skull and bruising her brain.
