Horse racing jockey STRUCK IN EYE with golf ball during a race!

Horse racing jockey Tom Scudamore has revealed how he was struck in the face by a golf ball during one of the races at Newbury on Saturday. 

Tom, son of eight-time champion jockey Peter Scudamore, was riding runner-up One For The Team in the John Francome Novices' Chase and explained how a golf ball appeared to have been kicked back while he was tracking the front-running Kalooki. 

Thank you to everyone for their kind messages. A great thrill to win the race again and thank you to all @JonjoONeill and Mr Hemings. Racing was the winner https://t.co/vrxah3qBKh

— Tom Scudamore (@tommyscu) November 28, 2020

"I was pretty lucky where it hit me just below the eye," said Scudamore.

"It has only affected my really good looks rather than my vision! I have a bit of a black eye but otherwise I’m fine.

"I can laugh about it now but if it had cost me the winning ride in the Ladbrokes Trophy I would not have been happy.

"Many tracks have golf courses in the middle of them, you will see the odd golf ball that has strayed from time to time."

The incident happened due to there being a golf course in the middle of the track at Newbury Racecourse. However, there should not have been any golf balls on the track due to it having been checked before the race meeting.

It's even more strange given the country has been in lockdown for the last four weeks. 

Keith Ottesen, clerk of the course at Newbury, said: "The grounds team and I go to great lengths to prepare the track ahead of racing to ensure the safety of all the horses and jockeys.

"It was brought to our attention after the second race that a buried golf ball had kicked back on Tom and subsequently we conducted a further sweep of the course but found nothing."

It wasn't all doom and gloom for Tom on Saturday as he did go on to win his third Ladbroke Trophy at Newbury with a brilliant frontrunning ride on Cloth Cap.