Ana O'Brien was taken to hospital by air ambulance after a fall at Killarney on Tuesday evening. O'Brien, the daughter of trainer Aidan O'Brien, was quickly attended to after her mount Druids Cross (Ire) (Cape Cross {Ire}), trained by her brother, Joseph, slipped up over two furlongs out in the Celtic Steps The Show At Killarney Racecourse Rated Race, the second contest on the card which was run at 6:20 p.m. The 3-year-old Druids Cross was fatally injured, while O'Brien was taken off the track in an ambulance before being transferred, the Irish Coast Guard air ambulance arriving at 7:45 p.m. and landing on the golf course. The third race was delayed for well over an hour as a result. O'Brien, 21, rode in both the G1 English and G1 Irish Derbys for her father this season and partnered her first winner as a 16-year-old at Dundalk in February, 2013.
Champion jockey Ruby Walsh was scheduled to ride in the later races, and told At The Races after supervising the win of the Willie Mullins-trained Grainne's Dream in the delayed 6:50 p.m., “I think the news was a bit better when she was leaving, so hopefully that is right. She'll be well looked after, fingers crossed for her.”
Late Tuesday night, Racing Post tweeted that O'Brien has a fractured vertebrae in her neck and T6 in her back and fractured cheek bones, and a brain scan came back clear. It also tweeted that, according to Dr. Adrian McGoldrick, she will require three to four months recovery time.
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