A JOCKEY was found dead during morning track work at a Tuerong horse stud last week.
Brian Mason, 50, was on a three-year-old filly at Denistoun Park, Balnarring Rd, when he appears to have suffered a heart attack.
Stable manager Trevor Andrews and another staff member became concerned when he did not return at 8.15am and walked out to find him slumped on the ground with the horse standing quietly beside him. He was unconscious and not breathing. Mr Andrews performed CPR until paramedics arrived and took over.
Mr Mason, of Walpeup, was pronounced dead at 8.57am. He was wearing an approved riding helmet, vest and riding boots. Police said there was no sign of trauma.
Mr Andrews said the jockey had been working at the stables for little more than a week. “He hadn’t worked for a long time and we were just getting to know him,” he said.
“It was a very hard thing to cop. We kept his heart beating until the ambulance arrived.”
Mr Andrews said stable staff members were shocked. “It was not a nice thing to happen.”
The coroner is investigating the cause of death which may have been a heart attack.
First published in the Southern Peninsula News – 11 April 2017
