This post caught my interest so i search him on the internet and found this interesting blog,that has not been updated in some time but was dedicated to jockeys that had died and was inspired by Trevor Rowlands.
This is his post from this linkhttp://nzjockeys.blogspot.co.nz/201 ... chive.html
It all started on a foggy morning in the middle of a Waikato winter in 1975. Trevor Rowlands riding Grandeoso disappeared into a bank of fog while exercising his horse. It was the last time he was seen alive. He didn't return to the stables at Kaipaki, his horse had suffered a heart attack and both the horse and Trevor were found later that morning in a ditch beside the road when the fog eventually lifted. That one accident changed how I felt about horse racing for a long long time. I hated the fog, and it took 35 years before I put all the peices together and began to remember the person, and not the death. Trevor was 17 years old, and I was almost 16 when the accident happened, and talking to his friends in the last year or so, they have relished the chance to talk about him again.
I set out to research my Family History, but after having lousey luck with my own family , I typed Trevors name into the Burial Locator, and up his info popped. I went to the cemetery and at the office I got the directions and then drove to the area they said he was buried in. (I am not a cemetery person, do not hang out in them as a habit, and don't like walking in them cos I feel like I'm stepping on someone when I pass by) Having said that, I did find his headstone, I actually walked past it, but out of the corner of my eye I saw the letters TREV - the rest of the name was hidden by lichen. I turned back and brushed off some of the growth and discovered his whole name in faded white paint on the polished granite headstone. I thought of all the things I wanted to say, but just sat there crying as I looked at his unkept headstone. It was like he'd been forgotten and that wasn't right. I returned the next day with bucket and brushes and cleaned it up so that it looked spick and span ... (it's amazing how fast you can scrub in a cemetery when you have too) and I go back each month and leave new flowers. But Trevor isn't there, it's just his bones, Trevor's spirit is around a lot and he knows he's not forgotten.
I rang the NZ Thoroughbred Association and they sent me a list of 82 names of jockeys killed during their careers in NZ. Sadly Trevors name wasn't on the list as he died in an off-track accident. So I started hunting down the lost and forgotten jockeys. My blogs are going to be about what I've done, who I've found and how I feel about this journey. One day it would be great to put them in a book and use the proceeds to fund a museum dedicated to NZ racing. But till then ... I'm going to be a Jockey PI and leave no stone unturned in my search for their stories.
I know this all started out from something sad, but what I've learned so far is that these men and women lived, and if they could tell us anything, it would be to grab each moment in our day and go for it ...... the number of jockeys/riders killed during their careers now stands at about 140. As I search some I've dropped off the list as they'd retired or had stopped before they passed on. Still it's sobering to think that 140 men and women have died so far.