After suffering a severe concussion when dislodged from his mount during the Fannie Bay meeting on Saturday, Ballarat jockey Thomas Doyle is expected to be discharged from Royal Darwin Hospital on Wednesday.
Doyle came to grief on Day 2 of the Darwin Cup Carnival when his mount Aplomado from the Chloe Baxter stable clipped heels after appearing to veer outwards, leaving the back straight at the 650m when sitting in third place along the rails.
Earlier in the day, the 25-year-old had saluted for only the second time on his NT sojourn aboard the Chris Pollard-trained Kerioth.
Having landed heavily on the dirt surface, Doyle was knocked out and received ambulance treatment before being transported to hospital for further tests and assessment.
“I saw him this afternoon; he’s improving every day, and he’s pretty bright, but he hasn’t got a great recollection at all of Saturday,” Thoroughbred Racing NT chief executive Andrew O’Toole said on Tuesday.
“He remembers riding Kerioth, but it’s not surprising that other things are mostly pretty hazy or non-existent.
“Tom suffered a very heavy concussion – he had two very minor bleeds on his brain.
“One in the front of his head and one behind his ear, but they’re very minor, and the doctors aren’t expecting any issues with those.
“He’s going to have to go a little easy, it’s unlikely he’ll ride again during Carnival.
“They’ve still got him on painkillers to help him with headaches and a sore neck.
“He has no fractures or breaks, but he suffered whiplash when he fell, and it has affected his neck muscles.
“I expect him to be out of hospital in the next 24 hours.”
Doyle, who arrived in the Top End to ride for Kyneton trainer Neil Dyer during Carnival, had only recently returned to riding after suffering a concussion when dislodged at Stawell in late March.
O’Toole indicated that Doyle has no thoughts of returning to Victoria – instead he plans to recuperate in Darwin and enjoy Carnival from the sidelines.
“It was a very heavy fall, I would be surprised if he’s back in the next little while,” O’Toole said.
“He’s made some good friends since he got here, he’s popular and a nice lad – he had his first win here a week before Carnival on Latest Bentley for Neil.
“Tom would be an asset if he was to relocate permanently to Darwin, he’s a hard worker, and he’s not the worst rider by any stretch of the imagination.”
A veterinary examination following the race on Saturday determined that Aplomado, a four-year-old gelding by Pride Of Dubai, sustained a laceration to the off-fore fetlock.
An inquiry into Doyle’s incident was opened by TRNT stewards on Saturday and adjourned to a date to be fixed.
“We went and visited Tom on Sunday afternoon, thankfully no broken bones, but he was suffering from the affects of concussion and was physically ill,” Dyer said.
“Just want to see him get better on a daily basis.
“It’s a big shock for everyone when that sort of thing happens on race day.”
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