Will this sharpen up our AWT maintenance?

[Chief Stipe]

Mikaela Claridge unsaddling a winner at Donald just weeks before her death in a trackwork fall at Cranbourne in August 2019. Photo : Brendan McCarthy/Racing Photos via Getty Images.

JOCKEYS

Charges arise from apprentice jockey death

Article Author

Brad Waters

2:35PM22 February 2021

WorkSafe has charged the Cranbourne Turf Club and a training operation with offences relating to the death of apprentice jockey Mikaela Claridge.

WorkSafe laid eight charges alleging breaches of the Occupational Health and Safety Act following an investigation into Claridge’s fall from a horse during trackwork before dawn on August 30, 2019.

The 22-year-old Claridge halted her riding career through injury but resumed her apprenticeship to the Ken Keys stable earlier that year. She rode her last winner at Sale six weeks before her fatal accident.

Claridge had been married less than six months.

Six of the charges were laid against the Cranbourne Turf Club while the Ken Keys-owned Saloon Park Pty Ltd training business face two charges.

Mikaela Claridge returning to scale on a winner at Echuca in 2018. Photo: Brendan McCarthy/Racing Photos via Getty Images.

 

The CTC was charged with three counts of failing to ensure, as far as reasonably practicable, people other than employees not exposed to health and safety risks.

The club was also hit with three counts of failing to ensure its workplace was safe.

The charges relate to an area of the Cranbourne Training Centre known as the ‘sand trails ’, which are located on the southern side of the facility.

WorkSafe alleges the CTC failed to maintain the sand trails at a safe standard for use.

Saloon Park faces two charges after WorkSafe alleged it failed to ensure employees did not ride on the sand trails track in the dark.

The case will begin with a filing hearing at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on March 17.