The Queen’s granddaughter Zara Phillips watched in horror yesterday as her jockey ex-boyfriend was thrown from his horse in a horrific fall.
Standing next to her, Camilla Parker-Bowles gasped and clasped a hand to her mouth as Richard Johnson’s horse, Wishful Thinking, smashed through the railings, scattering photographers and members of the public clustered around the final fence on the first circuit. The jump had to be bypassed on the next circuit as Johnson and a photographer caught up in the incident were attended to by doctors.
Remarkably there were no serious injuries to either horse or human. Johnson was stood down for the rest of the day with soft-tissue damage to his thigh but hopes to race again today, while photographer Jean-Charles Briens was taken to hospital for stitches in a badly-cut lip.