The fall that left popular Queensland jockey Kristy Banks with severe spinal injuries has been deemed accidental.Banks fell from August Bishop at the 900m mark of a race at Toowoomba on New Year's Eve and after initial evidence was taken from other riders the inquiry was adjourned.Banks attended Monday's hearing but left the room while video footage of the fall was shown, leaving her father Graham Banks and husband Dale Groves to represent her interests.August Bishop's trainer Kevin Kemp provide
The fall that left popular Queensland jockey Kristy Banks with severe spinal injuries has been deemed accidental.
Banks fell from August Bishop at the 900m mark of a race at Toowoomba on New Year's Eve and after initial evidence was taken from other riders the inquiry was adjourned.
Banks attended Monday's hearing but left the room while video footage of the fall was shown, leaving her father Graham Banks and husband Dale Groves to represent her interests.
August Bishop's trainer Kevin Kemp provided a veterinary certificate showing the horse had no lameness but had swelling in the left knee.
After viewing all available camera angles and studying the evidence, stewards found the fall in no way attributable to any horse or rider, but rather was the "result of an accident which unfortunately occurs in racing from time to time".
They said there was no fault on the part of Banks or her fellow riders.
"Stewards wish to reiterate that this occurrence, albeit accidental, highlights to the followers of the sport the significant risks that jockeys encounter whenever they participate on the racetrack," a statement from stewards said.
Thirty-year-old Banks, who broke her T12 vertebra and had a rod inserted in her back, continues to undergo rehabilitation.