NORMAN WILLIAMSON was yesterday reported to be "fine" after his fall at Galway on Saturday. And the injury-hit rider hopes to be able to return to action later this week.
Williamson's agent Dave Roberts said yesterday: "Norman's fine. I spoke to him yesterday evening and he said he was OK, just a bit sore but nothing to panic about."
Injury struck again for unlucky Williamson on the final day of the six-day Galway Festival when he was concussed after a fall over hurdles.
Deputising for John Shortt on Pingo Hill in the Dawn Milk Handicap Hurdle, Williamson was catapulted out of the saddle when the four-year-old clipped the top of the second hurdle.
On regaining his feet he was helped away by first aid personnel, limping on his left leg and still looking dazed as he returned to the jockeys' room.
Racecourse doctor Malcolm Little said: "Norman is suffering from mild concussion as well as a pain in the back of his neck and we have advised him to get an X-ray.
"He is dazed and I have stood him down for a minimum of two days as well as advising him to rest for a week."
But the jockey is hoping to resume riding later this week.
Roberts explained: "It all depends on what the doctor has entered in Norman's book. We don't race here until Plumpton on Friday and if he is officially signed off for just two days he would consider himself to be all right by then.
"But the doctor has advised him to rest for a week and jump jockeys do sometimes heed such advice.
Williamson has had an unlucky time with injuries of late.
He missed four months of last season with a broken leg and within three days of his return he suffered a dislocated shoulder which recurred and ruled him out of the rest of the campaign.
Victory in the race went to 12 to 1 chance Father Rector, owned, trained and bred by veterinary surgeon Paddy Fennelly.
Francis Woods had successive falls at the second last fence on Arthur Moore's pair Bobsville and Timely Affair.
Woods escaped unscathed from the first incident, but had a badly bruised left leg when coming to grief on Timely Affair amidst a four-horse pile up.
"I don't think there is anything broken, though I will be having an X-ray on the way home. Both horses held winning chances when they crashed out," explained Woods who leaves this morning for a two-week holiday in South Africa.
Richard Dunwoody profited from the fall of Bobsville in the opening Beginners Chase sponsored by the Irish Jockeys Association, getting the favourite Beakstown home by a neck from Cuban Question after the pair had been left clear.
In saddling juvenile Mount Rushmore and Gaultier Gale to win, Aidan O'Brien brought his tally for the week to seven winners, two behind the festival's leading trainer Dermot Weld.
The pair won in contrasting styles as Mount Rushmore only held on by a short head to beat Caiseal Ros in the Dawn Hi And Lo EBF Maiden under Christy Roche, while the Seamus Heffernan-ridden Gaultier Gale scored a facile five-length success in the EBF Premier Nursery, the first two-year-old handicap of the season.
Although the combined Tote aggregate was down on last year's figure, both bookmaker turnover and attendees were improved.
The total betting figure for the six days was £8.46 million, with bookmaker turnover up from £5,293,552 to £5,938,633 while Tote betting was down a little over £58,000 to £2,521,754.
The attendance figure for the meeting was 113,955 compared to 112,173 in 1995.
