Swinburn 'perfect'

Walter Swinburn could make a return to race riding as early as next week, his father Wally said ysterday. Swinburn, examined yesterday by Dr Michael Turner, the Jockey Club's chief medical officer, has steadily been nursed back to health since suffering a broken shoulder, broken ribs and bruised lungs in a fall at Sha Tin racecourse, Hong Kong, in February.

"Walter has gone to see Dr Turner today, and then he will go to see a neurosurgeon tomorrow or on Friday," Swinburn snr said. "I'm no doctor, but Walter is absolutely fabulous. I reckon he could be riding by the end of next week. It's the bones that have taken the time to repair. The lungs and the bones have been a problem but his head is fine and now he is absolutely perfect."

Swinburn jnr has recently returned from a holiday in Jamaica and yesterday rode fast work in Newmarket for the first time since his accident.