‘Head knocks left, right and centre’: Jockey’s brain could unlock impact of a career on the track
Jockey Dale Spriggs rode close to 3,000 winners in a career spanning almost 40 years.
He estimates he suffered somewhere between 20 and 30 concussions, not just in races but during track-work and in the barriers.
"You are on a 500-kilo horse in a confined space," he told 7.30.
"It's not only the horse's head coming back but you've got uprights around you that's you're being flung into, you get head knocks left, right and centre."
"It's like a little rag doll because they are so tiny and they weigh nothing, they get flung around," his wife Daniela Spriggs told 7.30.
Now Spriggs has become the first jockey to pledge his brain to the Australian Sports Brain Bank, which is studying the link between concussion and brain injury.
"There wouldn't be a jockey riding that hasn't been concussed, it's just a matter of how many times," he said.
Changes 'consistent with a neuro-degenerative disease'
Spriggs suffered a bad concussion in 2013, and a year later a knee injury forced his retirement.
By then he and his wife knew something was seriously wrong.
Mrs Spriggs had noticed her husband changing.
"Memory loss, depression, being withdrawn, mood swings," she told 7.30.
"He is completely different to the person he was.
"He will just get frustrated with himself, take it out on me because I'm the closest one to him."
"I get headaches, my balance has gone. I can just turn quickly into anger straight away at the drop of a hat over nothing," Mr Spriggs admitted.
In a search for answers, he saw Dr Rowena Mobbs, neurologist for the Australian Sports Brain Bank, earlier this year.
"I was concerned after his overall history of head trauma, the extensive knocks that he's had," Dr Mobbs told 7.30.
"We can see changes that would be consistent with a neuro-degenerative disease."
Dr Mobbs suspects Spriggs has developed a brain disease associated with repetitive hits to the head: chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a form of dementia.
"It's actually a concept that's been around for nearly a hundred years as the old punch drunk syndrome," Dr Mobbs said.
"Dale presented with the memory decline, mood change, sleep disturbance and overall difficulty of functioning."
Spriggs is now receiving treatment for the symptoms, but the damage is most likely irreversible and will worsen.
Brain bank research to 'put the codes on notice'
CTE can only be diagnosed after a person has died so, in the interests of research, Spriggs pledged his brain to the Australian Sports Brain Bank, a joint initiative of the University of Sydney and the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.
According to neuropathologist Dr Michael Buckland from the Brain and Mind Centre, who heads the Sports Brain Bank, 40 former sportspeople have already pledged their brains.
"I think it is one of the issues of our generation," he said.
"If we can gather the evidence that CTE exists in Australia associated with sporting activities, that will force the codes to sit up and take notice and to make real change and to enforce concussion rules that are being developed."
In the United States, researchers studied the brains of more than 100 deceased NFL players. In 99 per cent of cases they identified CTE.
The discovery prompted a class action law suit.
"I think we will find it is just as prevalent in the Australian sports population as it is in the American's," Dr Buckland said.
"I suspect there will be legal action and I guess that's part of our role as the Australian Sports Brain Bank, to put the codes on notice that we are gathering evidence."
'I had 100 falls before the one that ended my career'
Former jockey Libby Hopwood was forced to retire from racing with a brain injury after a fall in 2014.
"I walked away with a broken collar bone, fractured vertebrae, punctured lung and a traumatic brain injury which stopped me getting back to race riding," she told 7.30.
Her friend and fellow jockey, Caitlin Forrest, died from injuries she sustained in the same incident.
"People are falling off all the time, it is just the nature of riding horses," Hopwood said.
"I had 100 falls before I had this last one that ended my career."
Horse racing has made some changes in response to the growing knowledge about the dangers of concussion.
In NSW riders must do an annual cognitive test and are required to visit a neurophysician if their test shows anything of concern.
"We are catching up, we still need a lot of work," Hopwood said.
"If we can have a national protocol that is across the board and we are all held to the same standard, it would be greatly beneficial."
Paul Innes from the Australian Jockeys Association agrees the sport needs a national approach to concussion.
"We have liaised with the industry, with Racing Australia," he told 7.30.
"We are hoping we can work together on a national policy to ensure jockeys are followed up when they have been concussed and that they get the correct assessment when they return to riding."
Spriggs hopes giving his brain to the Sports Brain Bank will help researchers as they explore not just how to identify CTE, but how to diagnose it earlier.
And he hopes that any resulting safety guidelines will prevent other sportspeople from developing the disease in the first place.
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