A young jockey from one of New Zealand racing’s most famous families remains in an induced coma after a race fall at Rotorua on Sunday.

Bailey Rogerson is in the Intensive Care Unit at Waikato Hospital after been dislodged off her mount Mandolo in Race 6 at the Arawa Park meeting.

The 22-year-old has a fractured skull and the possibility of at least one other broken bone and was placed in the induced coma to help with swelling associated with a possible brain bleed.


Rogerson is the granddaughter of legendary trainer Graeme Rogerson and her mother Michelle Northcott has also been a jockey and amateur harness racing driver.

“Michelle hasn’t left Bailey’s side since it happened,” Rogerson told the Herald.

“She is in an induced coma but they are going to try to bring her out of that today.

“She has a fracture in her skull and there might also be a broken bone in her neck region but they haven’t been able to to X-ray her for that yet.

“But she has movement in her limbs so that is good news.

“We will know more today when she is brought out of the coma and obviously we are all very worried. But she is very tough.

“She rides plenty of horses that often can’t win because she accepts rides other people don’t want, she just loves riding.”

Rogerson was not at fault in Sunday’s accident with French jockey Corentin Berge, who has recently started riding in New Zealand, suspended by stewards for four weeks for allowing his horse to move out and check Rogerson’s mount with 400m to run.

“We have had so many well wishers and we hope to have an update for them in the next 24 hours,” says Rogerson.

Bailey rode a winner, her third for the season, earlier on the Arawa Park programme and sits on 58 career wins.

Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.