Tony McCoy has been taken to hospital for X-rays on his right thumb after a nasty incident at the start of a race at Folkestone today.
The champion jockey was tying the reins of his mount Flying Patriarch into a buckle before the start of the opening Daily Mail Juvenile Maiden Hurdle at the Kent track.
However, as another horse went past, the gelding became unsettled and pushed his head up. McCoy appeared to have got his thumb briefly stuck in the reins as he was thrown on to the ground.
"The course doctor informs me that he got his thumb caught in the reins, and that he has a query fracture dislocation of his right thumb," said clerk of the course Chris Stickels. "He is going to a hospital near his home, the Ridgeway in Swindon, to have an X-ray."