STATEMENT MADE BY MALCOLM WALLACE, CHAIRMAN OF BURGHLEY HORSE TRIALS AT A PRESS CONFERENCE HELD AT 11A.M. ON SUNDAY, 5TH SEPTEMBER 2004 AT BURGHLEY HORSE TRIALS
Good morning ladies and gentlemen, my name is Malcolm Wallace and I am Chairman of the Burghley Committee. With me are a number of key people who we believe are well placed to answer any questions you may have in relation to yesterday’s tragedy and I’ll introduce them, if I may
DR JOHN INMAN – Chief Medical Officer – who is responsible for the Burghley medical services and has been in this position for 17 years.
GUISEPPE DELLA CHIESA – FEI Technical Delegate - advises and checks that the competition is run according to FEI regulations and standards. He is also deputy chairman of the FEI Three Day Event Committee and was recently in Athens, appointed by the Athens Olympic Committee as consultant for the eventing competition.
LESLIE LAW – The reigning Olympic Three Day Event Champion
ERIC SMILEY – FEI Riders’ representative at Burghley.
JANE HOLDERNESS-RODDAM – Chairman of British Eventing and a former Olympic Gold Medallist
DOCTOR PETER WEBBON – FEI Veterinary Delegate and is tasked with ensuring that FEI Veterinary regulations are complied with. He is also Chief Veterinary advisor to the Jockey Club.
What I’d like to do is read a prepared statement to you, including some statistics and facts, which will be available to you afterwards. Then we’ll open up the conference to you so you can ask whatever questions you deem appropriate.
This is an interim statement as a full investigation is already underway, not only by the civil authorities, but also by the national and international governing bodies, being British Eventing and the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI).
First and foremost on behalf of the Burghley Horse Trials Committee and the whole sport we would like to extend our sympathy and condolences to Caroline’s family. Caroline was 42, single and from Middlewich in Cheshire. Let me assure you that we moved very quickly to inform her family. As soon as Caroline’s mother was informed we were able to officially notify connections, riders, officials and you the press. It was, due to circumstances beyond our control, very complicated and took longer than we would have liked but we did have a duty of care to tell her mother before anyone else was informed.
I’d like to explain to you what the format is for running this event. The stage and infrastructure for this competition is provided by the Burghley Committee through our professional team here especially in the planning stages. We service and administer the event while the International Equestrian Federation lays down the rules and competition format, i.e. speeds, distances, heights of fences etc and they are all overseen by International FEI officials selected by us from the lists provided.
Now we will explain what happened at the obstacle where Caroline fell.
It is important for you to know that Caroline had already ridden the course once – without penalties – and was going well, again without penalties, when her horse fell. According to the fence judges her horse appeared to be in good shape as it approached the obstacle and this is born out by the veterinary monitoring reports as she progressed around the course. We have analysed the speed of the horse over the previous 25 fences which indicates that she was travelling slightly quicker than on her first horse which is to be expected and she was going at almost exactly the same speed as the horses which completed in positions 5th-10th.
To confirm the details on the fence where the incident happened. It was the
third element of fence 26 – The Lake Crossing. This fence is exactly the
same fence in exactly the same location as used in 2003. The fence is 1.15m
high measured from where the horse takes off and has a top spread of 0.6m. The
water height at take off was 15cms, 20cms less than the maximum.
In 2003 61 horses jumped the fence clear and there were no falls. In 2004 50
horses jumped it clear and there was one other rider fall when the horse did
not fall.
This was not the type of fence at which a frangible pin is advised.
Her horse Primitive Streak, no 112, a 12 year old Bay Gelding was uninjured as a result of the fall.
This is a good time perhaps to ask Doctor Peter Webbon to explain our system for monitoring horses on the course and also give you a picture of how the horses were coping with yesterdays course.
I shall call upon Dr John Inman to describe the sequence of events.
That is the end of the end of the interim analysis on yesterday’s tragedy. You should be aware that after consultation with the riders, we have cancelled the parade of our Olympic medallists out of a mark of respect to Caroline, we deem it to be inappropriate, and instead the riders will be in the arena (unmounted) for a one minute silence at approximately 14.20 hours. You will probably already have seen that all flags are flying at half mast.
This is clearly a tragedy for all of us especially the riders – they are a tight knit group and Caroline was extremely popular and will be much missed.
Ends
For further information on Burghley Horse Trials please contact Candy Burnyeat on 07778 528 839
For further information on British Eventing please contact Winnie Murphy on 07967 186556