Weighing room shock as Matt Griffiths remains in critical condition after crash

Daryl Jacob has spoken of the sadness felt across the entirety of jockeys in the weighing room after news reached riders of a fatal car accident that has left Matt Griffiths in a critical condition in hospital.

Griffiths, 31, was described as being in a "stable but critical condition" with a "serious head injury" after the single-vehicle accident on Sunday, in which a 27-year-old man died.

Jacob said there was a feeling of "doom and gloom" among Griffiths' colleagues, but added the Grade 1-winning jockey was "a fighter and a real trier".

Speaking at Huntingdon on Tuesday, Jacob said: "We're like a big family in that weighing room, when any of us gets hurt or someone is dealing with a situation like we are at this present time then it hits us. It brings everything home.

"There's been some doom and gloom in the weighing room after the news about. As you can imagine the mood isn't great, Matt's a great character in the weighing room and is a great friend to all of us.

"He's a great lad – he's wonderful. He's a natural rider, a great horseman and he's everything you want from a jockey. That's a bit irrelevant now, we just want him to pull through and we've all got a lot of belief that he will because he's a strong character.

"He's a fighter and a real trier and the most important thing is that we get that good news – we all just want to hear that he's okay."

Matt Griffiths (left): jockey rode Dashel Drasher to victory in the Ascot Chase in FebruaryCredit: Alan Crowhurst (Getty Images)

Griffiths recorded his biggest day in the saddle when riding Dashel Drasher to victory in the Ascot Chase in February, with that success his first at Grade 1 level.

An appeal for information about the accident, which happened near the village of Exford on Exmoor in Somerset at 8.45pm on Sunday, was launched by Avon and Somerset Police on Tuesday.

In a statement, the force said the 27-year-old male passenger in the vehicle, a BMW 430, had died at the scene after the car had been involved in a collision with a tree.

The statement added: "If you have any information which could help our investigation, please call us on 101 and give the call handler the reference number 5221230833."

On Monday evening, the Injured Jockeys Fund outlined that Griffiths was in Southmead Hospital in Bristol in a "stable but critical condition", with no further update issued by the charity on Tuesday.