'It was pretty crunching and I knew it was bad' - conditional jockey breaks pelvis and vertebrae in Warwick paddock incident

Conditional Thomasina Eyston remained upbeat despite suffering her second serious injury of the year at Warwick, breaking her pelvis and lowest vertebrae.

Eyston had been due to partner the Ben Lund-trained Rock The House in a handicap hurdle at the track on Tuesday but was hurt when the eight-year-old reared up on the way to post. The race was delayed and the rider was taken to Warwick Hospital.

From there, she said on Wednesday: "I got on him and was taking him down early because he can get a bit worked up in the prelims and, just as we were leaving the paddock, he stopped, flipped over backwards and landed on me.

"I've broken my pelvis and lowest vertebrae."

Eyston, who has a chemistry degree and is based with Neil Mulholland, is unsure how long she will be sidelined for and added: "I had an MRI scan a few hours ago and that should tell us more when we get the results. I was taken to Warwick, but I'm about to be transferred to Coventry to have an operation and the specialists are there so I should find out more.

"You can't really do anything about it but I'm so gutted because I had a bad injury at Taunton in March when I dislocated and broke my ankle and broke a shoulder. I was off for four months and my aim coming back was just to not get any injuries.

"Things were going well too, how I wanted them to, and I was getting a few outside rides, but I guess these things happen."

Warwick: where Thomasina Eyston sustained the pelvis injury on Tuesday

The 23-year-old jump jockey, who has ridden 11 winners at a healthy level-stake profit in the last three campaigns, was accompanied to hospital by weighing room colleague Lilly Pinchin.

"Lilly has injured her back before so she made sure I was getting the right painkillers and it was great she was there," she said. "The injury didn't even happen in a race, but the vertebrae fracture is stable, so that's massively good news.

"I was worried at the time as it was pretty crunching and was one of those I knew was bad when it happened."

Read more:

Frodon returns! A profile of one of jump racing's most popular horses before his Badger Beer reappearance on Saturday  

The favourites, the markets and big names set for the Paddy Power, Greatwood and Coral Gold Cup - plus an ante-post tip 

Get set for the jumps! Join Members' Club now with 50% off just in time for the Big Jump Off and our brilliant stable tours 

Sign up to receive On The Nose, our essential daily newsletter, from the Racing Post. Your unmissable morning feed, direct to your email inbox every morning.