{"id":599567,"date":"2026-04-11T07:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T07:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/599567\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T07:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T07:10:10","slug":"much-loved-queensland-jockey-shane-mcgovern-in-induced-coma-after-horse-falls-and-crushes-his-legs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/599567\/","title":{"rendered":"Much-loved Queensland jockey Shane McGovern in induced coma after horse falls and crushes his legs"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are serious fears for veteran Queensland jockey<\/a> Shane McGovern who is in an induced coma in Townsville Hospital after he was trapped underneath a dead horse for six hours.<\/p>\n

McGovern\u2019s nine-year-old horse Reformist reportedly died from an aneurysm during trackwork and, as the gelding collapsed, it fell onto the 67-year-old McGovern.<\/p>\n

McGovern now faces the prospect of losing both his legs after they were trapped underneath the horse for six hours at his Charters Towers stables (more than 130km southwest of Townsville).<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

He was eventually found by his wife, trainer Kim McGovern, who was in shock at the discovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought \u2018well, that\u2019s Shane, he\u2019ll just go off for a ride\u2019, which is what he does because the horse was supposed to be racing on Monday,\u201d Kim McGovern said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m absolutely kicking myself, and it\u2019s a thing I will never forget. And then this ghoulish little arm comes up, and he says \u2018I\u2019m all right\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Australian Jockeys\u2019 Association health and safety officer Kevin Ring said McGovern\u2019s suffered nerve damage in the accident because his blood circulation had been cut off.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a possibility he may lose one or both legs,\u201d Ring said.<\/p>\n

He has already had surgery on his thighs and, in a positive sign, he had been conscious before he was put back into an induced coma.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Doctors) put the breathing tube back in to give his body a rest and they\u2019ll keep him like that for a couple of days,\u201d Kim told News Corp.<\/p>\n

Mount Isa Race Club said they were now raising funds to help Shane.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are deeply saddened to hear of jockey Shane McGovern\u2019s recent track work accident,\u201d the club said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cShane has long been a valued and dedicated supporter of our club and the wider North West racing community. People like Shane are the backbone of country racing, and our race days simply wouldn\u2019t be the same without them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn support of the McGoverns during this difficult time, the Mount Isa Race Club will be donating $1,000 and running a series of raffles. Your support of these upcoming raffles would be greatly appreciated. Our thoughts are with Shane and Kim.\u201d<\/p>\n

Message of support also flowed on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve known Shane for over 50 years. He\u2019s the toughest jockey in Australia. If anyone can get through this, he will. Keep fighting mate,\u201d one friend said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Aussie teenager breaks golden rule in crushing statement<\/p>\n

3 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Michael Maguire fuming after night of carnage and \u2018bizarre\u2019 calls<\/p>\n

3 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are serious fears for veteran Queensland jockey Shane McGovern who is in an induced coma in Townsville…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,588,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-599567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-sport","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}