Watkins injured his shoulder and wrist after losing control of his horse, Finno, as it took fright in the hailstorm when returning to scale after race four.

Finno clattered into the clerk of the course, Alan Watkins – a relation – and his horse, forcing the jockey and clerk to travel in the same ambulance to hospital.

"I've been riding for a long time, but I've never experienced something like that," the Coffs Harbour-based jockey said. "I'm a bit sore and sorry and I've got further tests coming up on Monday.

"My horse catapulted into [Alan] and I had to bail out of mine as I had no control of it. Alan was just unfortunate he was standing near the gate where the horses come back. I'd be lucky to have been 10 metres away from him before I bailed otherwise it would have been more serious. I'll say I'll be out of the saddle for a while."

The runner-up, Beau Brock, was later put down after dumping its rider Darren Jones and getting its leg caught in a fence.

Watkins described the jockeys looking as if they had been involved in a game of paintball with the welts they suffered.

Racing NSW has asked its northern rivers stewards to prepare a report on the incident, but they and race club officials maintain there was no way they could have predicted the savage storm would turn in the direction of the track.​

Grasshopper's bid

So awkward and gangly was the lightly raced Eccitare that it didn't take long for a moniker to stick.

"He's 17 hands and his stable name is grasshopper – he's just all legs," said Lesa Dobie, the wife of Muswellbrook trainer Michael. "He had the tallness, but he needed to fill out a bit. It's just been about time."

The Dobies only ever have a few in work, but might have stumbled across a smart one in the four-year-old gelding.

While Michael works long hours in the mines as the rest of the family help out with the stable, the last-start Mudgee winner is possibly being readied for a tilt at next year's Country Championships.

And his biggest test will come in the Carnival of Cups Prelude at Muswellbrook on Sunday, where he will no doubt be the sentimental favourite on the memorial day for former president Phil Pottinger, whose son John owns a share in the horse.

"We call [Michael] raceday special," Lesa joked. "He's here of a morning to see them work. My son rides trackwork, but he has a job too.

"As Michael says if he can win this race he should be competitive at provincials and midweeks and then if he hasn't won five races by the time of the championship we'll aim at that."

TAB meetings
Sunday - Muswellbrook. Monday - Dubbo, Goulburn. Tuesday - Albury. Thursday - Lismore. Friday - Scone. Saturday - Bowraville.