Dr Margot Bolster, the assistant State pathologist, carried out a postmortem and told his family at an inquest in Cork that he would have been \u201cdeeply comatose\u201d following the fall and \u201cwouldn\u2019t have known anything”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dr Bolster said Michael died of a catastrophic brain injury complicated by swelling with cerebral infarction due to a horse-riding accident. He had suffered multiple fractures of the skull in the fall. Dr Bolster said her findings were consistent with a fall from a horse.<\/p>\n
Cardiac first responder with the Order of Malta, William Sweeney, said it was his duty on the day to cover the last fence of the racecourse.<\/p>\n
In his Garda statement Mr Sweeney recalled that he he manned the last fence many times. He felt that \u201csomething seemed off\u201d on the day of the incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe horses were coming down the straight towards the last fence. I have a clear memory they were coming. I remember they were really pushing it, and recall saying, \u2018there will be trouble here.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The horses reached and cleared the fence. I saw two horses fall a distance away from the fence, and then I saw a third horse fall immediately after the fence. My focus was on the third horse.<\/p>\n
“The horse had fallen onto the rider, whom I now know to be Michael O’Sullivan, and until it was safely removed and he had been on top of him, kicking in panic.”<\/p>\n
Mr Sweeney said they took up position and secured Michael O’Sullivan’s head.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe head medical doctor from Kildare, moments later, she instructed me to keep securing the head while she carried out an assessment.<\/p>\n
“I was instructed by the doctor to remove Michael O’Sullivan’s helmet, which I did, and to apply pads and pressure to his ears which were bleeding. I followed the doctor’s instructions and maintained this position until the arrival of the higher ambulance helicopter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“To me, we felt like 10 or 15 minutes before the helicopter arrived. Once the helicopter arrived, I was asked to assist with getting into the helicopter, which I did.<\/p>\n
“When I said, ‘There will be trouble here,’ what I meant was from experience, sometimes we can anticipate the fall may be coming due to the horse’s approach.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Jockey](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/5080476_11_articleinlinemobile_2454021_1_.jpg\" "\\"Jockey")
Jockey Michael O’Sullivan and Barry Connell celebrate in the winners’ enclosure after Marine Nationale won the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham in 2023. File picture: Seb Daly\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n
HSA inspector Justin Walsh prepared a report on the incident for the coroner. He stated that Michael was a \u201cvery experienced jockey\u201d who was wearing the appropriate equipment on the day he sustained fatal injures. No breaches of healthy and safety were identified. The inquest heard that risk was something that could not be fully eliminated from horse racing.<\/p>\n
Jennifer Walsh, raceday operations manager with the IHRB, said the course had been fully inspected on the day of the race. All of the appropriate veterinary checks were made. She said the weather was \u201cfine, bright, and clear”.<\/p>\n
A through review of the incident was carried out by the IRHB.<\/p>\n
Horse owner and trainer Gerald O\u2019Leary said\u00a0 the late Michael O\u2019Sullivan had previously had success on his horse Wee Charlie.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said the seven-year-old horse was a \u201cstraightforward, sound horse with no vices\u201d and that Michael was an \u201cexperienced rider”.<\/p>\n
Mr O’Leary said: \u201cThey (Wee Charlie and Michael) were a good team. I spoke to Michael on the phone before the race. He said, \u2018We have a good chance.\u2019 I didn\u2019t speak to him again.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
IHRB veterinary officer Nicola O\u2019Connor said Wee Charlie was deemed \u201cfit to race\u201d on the day having been examined that morning. There was no history of previous injury or lameness.<\/p>\n
Jockey Sean Flanagan participated in the race in which Michael sustained fatal injuries. Sean fell off his own horse on the last jump of the race. He said that \u201ca number of other horses and jockeys also fell\u201d with most falling independently. He spotted Michael on the ground with his horse beside him.<\/p>\n
He stated that a doctor was tending to Michael and that the jockey was subsequently airlifted to hospital. The race was abandoned.<\/p>\n
Another jockey who participated in the race, Tiernan Roche, said there was \u201cnothing out of the ordinary\u201d on the day. He said Michael \u201cjust seemed very unlucky”.<\/p>\n
![\"Jockey](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/5080479_11_articleinlinemobile_2453855_1_.jpg\" "\\"Jockey")
Jockey Michael O’Sullivan celebrates on Marine Nationale at Cheltenham in 2023. Picture: Harry Murphy\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n
Dr Jennifer Pugh, chief medical officer with the IHRB, said Michael was wearing an appropriate helmet on the day of the fall.<\/p>\n
She said a through review of the incident had revealed that Wee Charlie had become unbalanced, leading to the fall. She said the course was \u201cin good order\u201d on the day and that Michael was in compliance with all of the safety regulations as regards equipment.<\/p>\n
A jury recorded a verdict of accidental death. Coroner Philip Comyn extended his sympathy to the family of the deceased following the death of the \u201cup-and-coming” jockey.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Comyn said that, \u201cmore importantly\u201d, Michael was a \u201cmuch loved\u201d young man who would be sadly missed by his family.<\/p>\n
Denis Linehan, solicitor, addressed the court on behalf of the O\u2019Sullivan family. He said the death had impacted not only on his family and the local community but also on the horse riding world \u2014 both in this country and internationally.<\/p>\n
Mr Linehan stressed that medics at the racecourse were \u201cheroic in their efforts\u201d following the \u201cunbelievable and terribly tragic accident”. He also paid tribute to Dr Jennifer Pugh for the \u201chumane\u201d manner in which she had communicated with William and Bernie O\u2019Sullivan following the death of their son.<\/p>\n
Sgt Fergus Twomey and Justin Walsh of the Health and Safety Authority also offered their heartfelt condolences to the famly of the late Michael O\u2019Sullivan.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/5080482_11_articleinlinemobile_FUNERAL_20OSullivan_20_2012355942.jpg\" "\\"The")
The coffin of Michael O’Sullivan is carried into St John the Baptist Church, Glantane in February 2025. File picture: Brian Lawless\/PA Wire.<\/p>\n
Michael shot to public attention in 2023 when he won the Supreme Novices\u2019 Hurdle at Cheltenham aboard Marine Nationale before going on to win the Fred Winter with Jazzy Matty.<\/p>\n
Huge crowds attended his funeral at St John the Baptist Church in Glantane, Co Cork, in February of last year. William O\u2019Sullivan told mourners that his son had his heart set on becoming a jockey from an early age.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said that although Michael had managed to receive a degree in agricultural science from UCD, he had it on \u201cgood authority\u201d that his horse-mad son read the Racing Post during lectures.<\/p>\n
Since his death Michael\u2019s family have raised tens of thousands of euro for Br\u00fa Columbanus, a charity which offers free accommodation to families of seriously ill patients in Cork hospitals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Cheltenham Festival-winning jockey was heading \u201ctowards the pinnacle of his career\u201d when his life was cut prematurely…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[79,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-449519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-cork-news","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}