Champion jockey Jim Crowley and fellow rider Frederik Tylicki were rushed to hospital after being injured in a serious incident at Kempton that ultimately saw the meeting abandoned.

The accident occurred as the field rounded the home turn in the Breeders Backing Racing EBF Maiden Fillies’ Stakes, the third race on the card.

Nellie Deen was tracking the pacesetting Madame Butterfly in the hands of Tylicki when the pair suffered a heavy fall.

Crowley, from Pulborough, and Electrify were racing immediately behind and were brought down, as was Steve Drowne’s mount Skara Mae. Ted Durcan was also caught up in the melee and was unseated from Sovrano Dolce.

Both Drowne and Durcan returned to the weighing room but Tylicki and Crowley were attended to on the track for some time before being taken to the major trauma unit at St George’s Hospital in Tooting.

Kempton clerk of the course Barney Clifford said both riders had suffered suspected spinal injuries. Clifford said: “The reality is, Flat or National Hunt racing, it’s a dangerous sport. You don’t expect those things to happen on the Flat. I just hope and pray that Freddy and Jim are OK.”

Crowley has enjoyed a career-defining year in 2016 with the 38-year-old being crowned champion for the first time at Ascot only last month.

A one-time jump jockey, Crowley was a 66-1 outsider for the riders’ title at the start of the year but enjoyed a stellar second half of the campaign including 46 winners in September, a figure which surpassed the previous record of 45 wins shared by legendary names of the Turf, Fred Archer and Sir Gordon Richards.