Angry owners and trainers were calling for immediate action after three horses were killed in a sickening head-on pile-up at Sedgefield yesterday.

Jockey Lorcan Wyer was catapulted 10 feet into the air as several juddering collisions occurred before the second-last fence in the Alphameric Red Onion Novices' Chase.

In the resulting chaos six horses were brought down and several jockeys ended up on the floor.

Later it emerged that three horses - Royal Scimitar, Skane River and Floss The Boss - lost their lives.

Miraculously none of the jockeys was seriously injured in the incident.

Wyer, who escaped with a sprained thumb, after being shot into the air when Royal Scimitar collided with one of the loose horses said: "I'm very lucky and I've no ambition to take up sky diving after that."

The trouble flared when Joss Bay fell at the first fence bringing down Skane River and Sliema Creek.

Initially the three loose horses carried on in the same direction as the remaining runners in the race. But when the field had completed the first lap they were forced to miss out the fence where the three had fallen because there was an injured jockey on the ground.

As a flag man waved the runners around the dolled off obstacle the loose horses suddenly turned round and charged off in the opposite direction.

They came back past the winning post and continued going until disaster struck as they reached the field before the second-last fence.

John Robins, of Animal Concern, called for an inquiry into the accident.

He said: "We would hope that there will be a full inquiry involving not only the race course administrators but also the RSPCA as an impartial body."

Grand National winning jockey Neale Doughty has expressed his disgust at the pile-up. "It's been an accident waiting to happen for a long time," said Doughty, who was seriously injured in a similar incident at the track in May 1989.

"Two horses were wiped out when it happened to me. I crushed several vertebrae and had multiple rib fractures. I did not ride for about eight months.

"I am surprised that Sedgefield and the Jockey Club did not see sense when it happened to me. The whole thing disgusts me."