RACING

n Jockeys Philip Robinson and Chris Rutter are counting the cost of their appearances in the Ulster Harp Derby at Down Royal on Thursday after a three-horse pile-up. Robinson, riding the Michael Jarvis-trained Northern Union came off worst in the incident from which he sustained severe bruising, while Rutter, on board the Willie Muir-trained Greenspan, escaped with a bruised foot and slight concussion. Both jockeys were at home yesterday morning with Robinson very stiff from the mishap. "I have a pain in my right chest which I think is badly bruised," said Robinson.

"It feels like I have been run over by an elephant. "I tried to swim this morning but was unable to do a stroke of breaststroke. "I shall go and see my own doctor this afternoon and will have more idea of when I can get back but I won't be riding until Monday at the earliest." Robinson remembers the incident clearly."It all happened so fast but I heard a scream and then the two horses in front fell and I came down immediately afterwards." The jockey praised staff at the Lagan Valley Hospital in Lisburn, where he was taken after the fall.

"The people at the hospital were very, very good and they wouldn't have let me go if they felt I wasn't right but they advised another X-ray if the pain didn't clear up." Rutter, stood down for a mandatory 48-hours, disagrees with medical opinion that he was concussed in the fall, which occurred on a bend three furlongs from the finish. "I feel fine," he said yesterday.