Jockey Gina Andrews sets sights on Aintree return after horror fall left her with broken eye socket and damaged liver

THEY call jump jockeys a ‘different breed’ for a reason.

Just take Gina Andrews, who was knocked out cold and rushed to hospital after a horror fall at Cheltenham in December.

For a chaotic half-hour period at the track, many feared the worst as she lay motionless on the turf having been kicked in the face by a horse.

She broke her cheekbone and eye socket, suffered lacerations to her liver and was unconscious for several minutes. 

Yet within six weeks, she was back in the saddle and raring to go having been cleared to resume race riding by BHA chief doc Jerry Hill.

But with amateur riders banned from riding at the upcoming Cheltenham Festival, Andrews will be denied a dream comeback at the scene of her terrifying ordeal.

Not that she remembers any of it.

“Everyone keeps telling me how awful it was, but for me it wasn’t that bad because I had no idea what was going on!” she joked.

“I remember all of the race and I know that I fell at the last. I can remember going to the last and thinking, ‘I’m on a nothing stride here’, and the horse ended up stepping at it. 

“Next thing I knew, I was in the ambulance on the way to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital.”

Haafapiece, who was unhurt in the incident, held a narrow lead at the last when he fell

Andrews as knocked out when she hit the turf

And she was kicked in the face by an on-rushing horse

But it was a harrowing experience for Andrews’ friends and family, including her sister and fellow jock Bridget Skelton, who watched on as she was ‘thrown around like a rag doll’.

She was still in with a chance of winning aboard Haafapiece, who emerged unscathed, when he crashed out at the final flight, hurling the Cheltenham Festival-winning rider into the path of an on-rushing horse.

Andrews said: “I was knocked out for several minutes. Apparently I woke up when I was still on the course and Dan Skelton and my sister were there, but I have no recollection of seeing them. 

“I remember gauging it was quite serious when I was on my way to hospital. The ambulance driver asked me if I wanted to see a picture of my face and I said no thank you!

“I was knocked out the second I hit the floor so I couldn’t curl into a ball to protect myself. 

“I was thrown across the track like a rag doll which is why I was trodden on.

“I fractured my cheekbone, my eye socket and lacerated my liver, but it could have been worse.”

She has since undergone surgery and will have two plates in her face for the rest of her life.

And she is now regaining sensation in the left side of her face, which was numb for several weeks.

She said: “I had to have surgery and I’ve got a plate under my eye and in my cheekbone now. 

“I didn’t look very pretty for a few weeks, but now you’d struggle to see anything wrong with me. I’ve got a small scar under my eye, but that’s about it. 

“The left side of my face was numb for a long time and they said it could take six months to a year to get feeling back, and if it didn’t return in that time it never would. 

“But thankfully I’ve got most of it back now – I just can’t feel anything in the left side of my nose!”

Andrews won on Domesday Book at Cheltenham in the 2017 Kim Muir

A hugely successful amateur with almost 350 winners to her name, Andrews hit the headlines in 2017 when she rode 40-1 shot Domesday Book to win the Kim Muir at the Festival.

She is gutted that she won’t get to chase a second winner at the four-day spectacular, which kicks off in just 10 days.

But the 29-year-old, who also trains a string of point-to-point horses with her husband Tom Ellis, has now set her sights on a comeback at the Grand National meeting.

She has ridden over the National fences several times, completing the famous course three times aboard Emergency Cover and Island Life. 

And she is hoping the stable’s top hunter chaser Latenightpass can help her complete a dream comeback – via a big run at Cheltenham.

She said: “I really hope amateurs will be able to ride at Aintree, it was so disappointing that we couldn’t ride at Cheltenham. 

“If point-to-points are starting up again on March 29, I don’t see how they can stop us from riding at Aintree.

“It’s been pretty soul-destroying not having any point-to-point meetings the last few months. We have 45 horses in the yard and have only been able to run five of them in hunter chases.

“The same work goes into a point-to-point yard as a National Hunt yard, so we have been doing all the graft for no reward – but the end is in sight at least. 

“Hopefully Latenightpass runs well on Gold Cup day at Cheltenham and he can go on to Aintree because I’d love to ride him around there.

“It’s been a tough winter but a winner around there would be a dream. It would make it all worthwhile.”

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