John Spearing airlifted to hospital after suffering multiple fractures in fall

Trainer John Spearing is recovering in hospital in Birmingham from serious injuries sustained when putting a two-year-old through the stalls for the first time.

Spearing, 78, suffered "multiple fractures" in the fall and had to be airlifted from his Kinnersley stables in Worcestershire to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.

Kate Ive, his assistant, said: "John suffered multiple fractures and a bleed on the brain. He broke 12 back ribs, some broken in two places and his right shoulder blade and has a stable fracture of his thoracic vertebrae.

"It happened when the flap was shut behind the two-year-old in the stalls and it bolted. The air ambulance crew was fantastic and he couldn't be in better hands.

"John is improving day by day and is coming out of intensive care and we are carrying on at home keeping the show on the road for him. He will be going to Oaksey House when he comes out of hospital."

The trainer's Pearls Legend, who won his fifth chase at Huntingdon in May, runs in the feature handicap chase at Stratford on Tuesday evening.

John Spearing's training statistics

Spearing has been training since 1972, initially at Alcester in Warwickshire but for the last 15 years out of the historic Kinnersley yard in Worcestershire from where Fred Rimell and then his widow Mercy trained.

One of his most memorable chasers was the durable Run And Skip, who won the 1985 Welsh National, making all under Peter Scudamore, and also made the frame in both a Gold Cup and Whitbread at Sandown.

Spearing also trained the Mercy Rimell-owned Simon to win both the Great Yorkshire Chase and Racing Post Chase in 2007.

He has trained many multiple winners on the Flat with Listed success from Vax Lady, Vax Star, Croeso Croeso and Pintle, and he has also trained popular sprinters such as Cashel Mead, Cree Bay, On Edge and Lucedeo, who completed the feat of winning four races in a week.

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