Four-year-old bay mare Lina's Choice collapsed with a shattered leg near the winning post at the Gulgong racecourse, in central western NSW, on the morning of February 8, 2022.
Apprentice jockey Marina Morel suffered critical injuries when she became pinned underneath the panicked and thrashing animal.Â
"Marina just went straight over the front of the horse, hit the ground really hard and somehow got sucked under," her head trainer Brett Thompson testified on Thursday during a probe into her death.
He said that just prior to the fall, he heard the sound of steel-on-steel as Lina's Choice clipped her horse shoes together.
Mr Thompson became visibly emotional, his voice cracking while describing the tragedy at Lidcombe's Coroners Court.
He needed a break after sobbing during questions about his final conversation with the 30-year-old apprentice jockey.
Mr Thompson - who owns Brett Thompson Racing - said he jumped the fence after Ms Morel came off, witnessing his son Kurt pulling her from under the horse.
"Kurt dragged her out and I knew from the time I seen her eyes, she was gone," he told the court.
It took 40 minutes for an ambulance to arrive before she was airlifted to Sydney's Westmead Hospital.
She died four days later.
The inquest is probing Lina's Choice's medical fitness at the time of the accident.
The court previously heard the mare was put back to work six months after suffering a partially ruptured ligament in March 2021.
This was despite veterinarian advice that the horse be given 12 months' rest in a paddock.
On Thursday, Mr Thompson said he considered the ruptured ligament a minor injury and had not seen any signs Lina's Choice was lame.
He eased her into the racing scene, putting her on the treadmill for around a month and getting her to run a trial session in December 2021.
Attending vets found no health issues, he told the court.
"I was really happy with her," he said.
Lina's Choice then raced twice at Wellington and Dubbo in January 2022.
Videos of these two races were played to the court.
At Dubbo, the mare was pushed aside by gelding Black Star Bowie into a second horse, Mr Thompson said.
Black Star Bowie's jockey pleaded guilty to one charge of reckless riding and was suspended for five days, the court heard.
After that incident - and days before the fatal fall - equine chiropractor Gary Christou found Lina's Choice had muscle tightness in her chest.
The inquest continues on Friday.
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