Dennis Cason (photo: supplied)
A week after being seriously kicked by a horse in the Flamingo Park parade ring, Dennis Cason is back home recuperating from emergency surgery.
On Monday, 23 April 2018, the usual knot of owners, trainers and jockeys were assembled in the Kimberley parade ring ahead of race 2, when Dennis suddenly crumpled to the ground.
“It happened so fast, people thought he’d had a heart attack,” explains his wife, Eleanor. However, the incident was caused by a passing horse freshing and kicking Dennis in the abdomen. Although Dennis initially said he was fine, back in the members lounge he was advised to see the on course doctor, who called for an ambulance. “ER24 were on the scene within 20 minutes and he was taken straight to Mediclinic Gariep. I have to say, the reaction was excellent,” she says gratefully.
Eleanor first heard news of the accident from Dennis’ assistant Rhys van Wyk when he rang to ask for Dennis’ medical details en route to hospital. “The first thing I asked was ‘how serious is it?’ and Rhys said ‘quite serious’. They found he had internal bleeding and at 5pm he was admitted for emergency surgery. The surgery took just under two hours and the surgeon said it had been quite a serious kick – if it had been a centimetre higher, it could have been fatal.”
Dennis was moved to High Care until Friday, 27 April and transferred to a general ward that evening. However, he talked the hospital into discharging him on Saturday, 28 April and is now recuperating at home.
“He was released against the doctor’s will, but he told them the horses need him,” continues Eleanor. “Dennis has got the farm to look after and needs to do the track. He’s got a good doctor friend in Welkom, so will be under his care while he recovers at home.”
On The Mend
Dennis trains from his home base in Welkom in the Free State, travelling to and from the Flamingo Park meetings. “It’s his only joy in life,” says Eleanor fondly. “He’s been racing all his life and you worry about things like travelling there and back. You know accidents can happen with the jockeys, but you don’t realise something like this can happen to an owner or a trainer on the racecourse.”
“It’s been a big shock to the family,” she continues. “Dennis is 65 now and when you get older, it’s a bit harder to recover from these things. On Monday night, the doctor said the operation was a success and he was 100% sure of a full recovery, but on Tuesday, Dennis took a bit of a dip and had to have a blood transfusion. All the family flew up to be with him.”
“The doctors are very happy with the outcome so far, but Dennis will be off for 6 weeks, which means no driving and no income,” she says worriedly. “Fortunately Rhys has been here to help. He was with Dennis the whole of last Monday and stayed with him in hospital on Monday evening and when I got to hospital on Tuesday, he came back the farm and has been seeing to the horses and doing nominations and entries.”
“Dennis mentioned to me that the trainers have brought it to Phumelela’s attention that somebody is going to get injured because the parade ring is too small and over-congested. It was reported that Phumelela gave Flamingo Park the funds to enlarge the ring late last year, which was supposed to have been completed over the Christmas period, but up to the day Dennis had his accident, nothing had been done. After the incident, the very next morning Phumelela instructed the course manager to start enlarging the ring immediately. Unfortunately it nearly cost a life for Phumelela to act.”
