APPRENTICE jockey Winona Costin is expected to miss at least two weeks of riding after being concussed in a fall at Wellington on Sunday.
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Costin, who earlier in the day had guided Siderlite to victory for local trainer Garry McCarney, was aboard Stable Surprize in the $35,000 Federal Hotel Geoff England Memorial Sky Gold Cup (1700m) when the gelding appeared to clip the heels of rival runner Crown Moss near the 200m mark, sending the 20-year-old crashing to the turf.
While Greg Ryan booted the Jeremy Sylvester-trained Collar ($3.00 fav) to victory, all eyes were focused back up the track as ambulance officers tended to Costin.
After more than half-an-hour they got her off course and she was transported to Dubbo Hospital, where she remained overnight before being released on Monday afternoon.
Costin's manager Tony Haining was by her side from the moments after the incident and said she was very lucky to have escaped major injury.
"She has a badly bruised jaw and a sore left ankle, and she was pretty heavily concussed but this morning (Monday) she is back to her usual self," Haining said.
"It's a frightening thing to watch and we obviously haven't seen any replays but all I remember seeing is her colours go up in the air and when that happened I dropped my drink and ran down to be by her side.
"She didn't know where she was for a while but she's been looked after well and she was asking me whether she will be riding on Wednesday or Saturday and I told her no. She'll have a couple of weeks off just to get over it all.
"You see what happens in some of these race falls and think the worst. We're just lucky that she has come through it. She's pretty tough."
Stewards opened an inquiry immediately after the race but adjourned it to a date to be fixed so they can take evidence from Costin.
Collar, a $5000 purchase for Sylvester as a tried horse, won the Cup by one-and-three-quarter lengths from Strong Boy ($15.00, Nigel Seymour) with Cardiff Prince ($6.00, Mathew Cahill) steaming home for third.