CONCERNS for Horatio Nelson surfaced well before the colt broke a foreleg and had to be put down yesterday. Down at the start, trainer Aidan O’Brien watched the second favourite — and the chosen mount of Kieren Fallon, his stable jockey — as he trotted up and down before being loaded into the stalls. The racecourse vet was present and, in consultation with the trainer, decided that the horse was fit enough to race. It was a fateful decision.

With a furlong and a half to run, the three-year-old was seen to stumble and nearly fall as he mounted a vain challenge on the outside of the field. Fallon quickly dismounted and held the reins to calm the horse as the field streamed away. Black screens were erected around the scene, always a grim reckoning on the racetrack.

Horatio Nelson was taken from the course by ambulance, but a statement released by the Horseracing Regulatory Authority (HRA) just after 6pm confirmed the worst fears of racegoers and connections.

“Several x-rays were taken,” Paul Struthers, PR manager for the HRA, said. “They revealed he had suffered fractures of the cannon and sesamoid bones and a dislocation of the fetlock joint. Sadly, the injuries were too severe to be repaired.”

This was the second high profile injury to hit racing in two weeks after the stricken US wonder horse, Barbaro, was injured during the Preakness, the second leg of the American triple crown.

“They were able to take 10 or 12 x-rays,” explained Peter Webbon, chief executive of the HRA and former chief veterinary adviser to the Jockey Club, of the decision to put the horse down. “You could then see the extent of the damage. The chances of treatment being successful were pretty remote. We had to consider how the treatment would be carried out and what the horse would be capable of doing when the treatment was completed.”

Fallon, unhappy with Horatio Nelson’s action on the way to the post, had initially voiced doubts about the fitness of the second favourite.

As the race developed, Horatio Nelson never displayed the fluency which had led Fallon to choose him above Septimus, the winner of the Dante and the more obvious candidate to bring Coolmore further Classic glory. Despite calls to the BBC and the racecourse from viewers angry that Horatio Nelson had been allowed to race at all, there was a suggestion that an accidental clipping of heels had caused the injury. The inquest, though, will continue.

One viewer, Jean Cadman, of Bury St Edmunds, told The Sunday Times: “It was obvious there was an odd nod of lameness. Fallon was not happy, but his advice was ignored. Perhaps if it had been any other race the horse would have been withdrawn.”

Asked about the concerns for Horatio Nelson’s fitness at the start, owner John Magnier said: “If there was something, it was checked by the people down there and they passed it. So there’s no point in blaming anyone.”