Updated 10pm

IRISH RIDER JT McNamara has been airlifted to hospital this evening after he was injured in a fall on the third day of the Cheltenham Festival.

The  amateur rider was hurt when his mount Galaxy Rock crashed out of the  Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup at the first fence.

After he was treated on the course by medical staff, McNamara was transferred to a Bristol hospital by air ambulance.

The announcer at Cheltenham lsaid McNamara was conscious after his fall.

“I’ve been told that JT is in an induced coma at the moment,” McNamara’s uncle, the trainer Andrew McNamara, said later.

Speaking a fter 9pm tonight Dr Adrian McGoldrick, chief medical officer for the Irish Turf Club, said: “JT has suffered a serious neck injury.

“He is being looked after at the regional spinal unit but as yet he is still waiting for a scan. So what we know so far is that he has a neck injury, but we will know far more in the morning when hopefully he will have had his scan.”

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