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Apprentice jockey Willy Kan Wai-yue was killed in a fall at Sha Tin racecourse yesterday.

 She was only the second rider to die in a fall in 28 years of professional racing in Hong Kong.

 Only last Wednesday she had recorded the highlight of her career: a winning double at Happy Valley.

 Kan, 20, came off Happy King in the 2pm third race after the horse clipped the heels of Big Fortune at the 700-metre mark and was trampled by two other horses.

 Suffering severe head injuries and internal bleeding, she was taken in a semi-conscious state to nearby Prince of Wales Hospital following resuscitation on course. She died at 4.45pm.

 Jockey Club chief steward Alan Li Fook-sum announced her death at the hospital.

 'It is my sad duty to report to you that Willy Kan did not survive the injuries she received in a fall earlier today.

 'After a meeting of the board of stewards and as a mark of respect to Willy Kan, Race 10 will be abandoned.'  Mr Li broke down in tears at that point and was unable to continue. Jockey Club chief executive Lawrence Wong Chi-kwong had to step in to finish reading the message. 'We are united in expressing our deepest regrets to her family,' Mr Wong said.

 Relatives were too distraught to speak as they accompanied the body from the operating theatre to the mortuary.

 Director of racing Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges said: 'It is totally tragic. I have never experienced anything like this in my years in racing. She was such a talented and likeable young rider.'  David Hill, chairman of the Trainers' Association, said: 'Every one of us is appalled at the news. She was a most genuine and really likeable young person who was a great credit to herself and her profession. I think we are finding it hard to take in.'  Kan had been attached to the stable of Brian Kan Ping-chee since starting her professional riding career two years ago.

 She was the most successful of the woman apprentices licensed over the past 10 years and last month became the first woman to take part in the Hong Kong Derby.

 It was not the first accident in which Kan was involved. She was hurt in a fall last summer when she was attached to the stable of Dandy Nicholls in England. She suffered double vision and was ruled out of action for the first three months of the present season.

 The double last Wednesday took her winning tally for this season to six. She had ridden 17 in total.

 Big Fortune, the horse that Kan's horse clipped, severed a tendon and was put down. Two other horses were destroyed after breaking legs in the home straight in later races. The riders were unhurt.

 The only other jockey killed since professional racing began in Hong Kong was Englishman Brian Taylor, winner of the Epsom Derby in 1974, who died days after a fall in 1983.



Woman jockey killed in fall