A JOCKEY was rushed to hospital with a broken jaw after being punched in a nightclub toilet while celebrating the biggest win of his career.
Poor Ashley Butler’s left side of his face was grotesquely swollen after he was ambushed in a seemingly random attack.
Butler, 30, was the victim of a cowardly sucker punch, according to his wife Heidi.
The jockey was celebrating after winning the £250,000 Archer race at Rockhampton racecourse in Australia earlier on Saturday.
Butler, who has won more than £4million in his career, was victorious on 10-1 Emerald Kingdom.
He was out having a few drinks with mates when he popped to the loo.
It was then that he was apparently lamped by another reveller and forced to spend a night in hospital before being booked for surgery in Brisbane on Sunday.
Heidi said: “They are going to get a helicopter and send him down to Brisbane.
“He was king hit when he went to the toilet last night at one of the nightclubs here in Rockhampton.
“It shattered his jaw in five places.
“He is conscious, responsive and everything like that. He is doing well but the CT scan came back and he has broken it badly.”
Incredibly, Butler made it back home with Heidi before the extent of the damage became clear.
She added: “I have gone through a few boxes of tissues but we are getting better.
“We have to think positive with all of it because it would have been 100 times worse.
“We had the best day at the races on Saturday and for this to happen, I just don’t know what to say.”
Butler added the attack meant he went ‘from the penthouse to the s***house’.
