Bryan Cooper has more surgery on fractured leg

Bryan Cooper

had more surgery on his broken leg yesterday and it could be up to 10 days before the jockey can return to Ireland after an injury described by the Turf Club doctor as “the worst fracture I’ve ever seen in a lower limb.”

Cooper broke his leg in a fall from Clarcam in Wednesday's Fred Winter Hurdle at Cheltenham and after an initial operation at Gloucester hospital he was moved to Frenchay Hospital in Bristol where he underwent further surgery yesterday.

“It’s a compound fracture with multiple fragments, very much like you’d see if somebody came off a motorbike at speed,” reported the Turf Club’s chief medical officer, Dr Adrian McGoldrick.

“It’s the worst fracture I’ve ever seen in a lower limb, but the surgery went very well in Gloucester and he’s now in Frenchay. It will be the same procedure Ruby Walsh had when he fell at Down Royal,” he added. McGoldrick predicted Cooper will be in Bristol for between seven and 10 days and although stressed Cooper will eventually be back racing, he couldn’t say when he will return. Initial reports immediately after the jockey’s fall indicated Cooper could face up to six months on the injury sidelines.

Post-Cheltenham, Irish jump racing is wasting no time getting back into top gear this weekend with three fixtures highlighted by Limerick’s black-type card tomorrow.

Newmarket trainer
The featured Grade Two Dawn Run Mares Novice Chase even has an Anglo-Irish element with Newmarket trainer Lucy Wadham sending Baby Shine for the race.

Wadham is a shrewd operator and Baby Shine has been mixing it with some of the best British novices this season. However, Baby Shine got turned over at odds on in Plumpton last time when not jumping particularly well.

She does have a slight edge on Byerley Babe on figures but JP McManus’s runner will appreciate stepping back up to two and a half miles.

Willie Mullins can lift the Grade Three novice hurdle for mares with Urticaire who found only her stable companion Upsie too good on her previous start. Mullins and Michael O'Leary's Gigginstown team should also be on the mark in the concluding bumper where the giant Milsean can score. He was odds on to beat another O'Leary runner, No More Heroes, at Navan but couldn't follow up his earlier course win. This looks an easier task.

Philip Fenton sends five horses to today's Limerick fixture and the Down Royal third Ange D'Or Javilex looks the best of them in the first of the bumpers.

Barry Geraghty takes over on Le Vent D'Antan who has his third start over hurdles at Navan tomorrow and for a horse capable of winning the November Handicap off a mark of 100 on the flat, Sir Ector's return to jumping tomorrow looks worth watching.