NZ Stablehand Dies After Racehorse Kick

Thursday, 07 October 2010 02:45

A New Zealand stablehand has died after being kicked by a top racehorse during the Hawke's Bay spring carnival.

Blair Busby, 37, suffered a ruptured spleen when star mare Katie Lee kicked him while he was in the stalls area during the race meeting in Hastings on Saturday, the New Zealand Herald reported on Thursday.

Busby was taken to hospital, but died on Wednesday afternoon after "complications led to a serious stroke" and he was placed in an induced coma, according to his employer, Te Akau Stud.

"We cannot begin to tell you how devastated we all are today - with the heaviest of hearts we have to tell you that Blair Busby passed peacefully this afternoon (Wednesday)," the stud, based in the North Island's Waikato region, said in a statement on its the website.

The statement said Busby had been accompanying Icepin to the Hawkes Bay races on Saturday when he was kicked by the other horse.

The Waikato Times reported on Thursday that Busby was leading Icepin around the saddling enclosure as a warm-down for the colt after he finished second in the Hawke's Bay Guineas when he was kicked by Katie Lee.

Katie Lee, trained by Graeme Rogerson, is a four-year-old mare who has won eight of her 18 starts, including two Group One features, for prizemoney in excess of $A900,000.

She won the Group Three Traderacks Stakes on Saturday.

Acting senior sergeant Darren Pritchard said there was nothing suspicious in Busby's death, which has been referred to the coroner.