RACING: The medical team attending the injured jockey Jimmy Mansell are hoping he can be taken off a life-support machine in the next 36 hours.

Last season's champion claiming rider remains in the intensive care unit of Castlebar General Hospital after his fall at Ballinrobe races on Sunday.

Mansell was knocked unconscious when the horse he was riding, Showboat Meldoy, fell during a hurdle race and brought down two other horses.

The medical team at Castlebar are consulting with the neurological unit at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin regarding what was described yesterday as a "significant head injury." The Turf Club medical officer Dr Walter Halley is in close contact with both hospitals, and the family of the 19-year- jockey who is originally from Co Limerick.

Halley said yesterday: "He is on a life-support machine which is part of the treatment for this type of injury. We hope in the next 48 hours he can be weaned off it."

Mansell, who won the claiming jockey's title with 25 winners last season, was riding in the fourth race at the Co Mayo track when the fall occurred.

Mansell recently returned from Australia where he had successfully represented Ireland in a jump jockeys challenge.

He is generally regarded as one of the more promising young jockeys in the country and his career total of 32 winners include two in the current season which started in June.