A horse training company has been convicted and fined over the death of an apprentice jockey.

Saloon Park Proprietary Limited has been convicted and fined $350,000 in a Melbourne court over the fatal fall of apprentice jockey Mikaela Claridge. 

Her death occurred during routine pre-dawn trackwork on the sand trails of Cranbourne Training Complex, which is Australia's largest thoroughbred training centre operated by Cranbourne Turf Club.

Saloon Park Pty Ltd was found guilty by a County Court jury of twelve in March of failing to provide a safe working environment. 

During sentencing, Judge Peter Rozen said there were “readily available” measures to Saloon Park Pty Ltd to eliminate or reduce risks prior to Claridge's death. 

“These included prohibiting its employee track riders from riding horses on the sand trails in the dark,” Judge Rozen said. 

“There was nothing to prevent it from implementing such a direction. There was no cost associated with making the change.”

Judge Rozen said the objective seriousness of the company’s offending was “significant”, as was its moral culpability. 

“It was reasonably practical to have eliminated those risks,” he said. 

“That was what the [Occupational Health and Safety] Act required Saloon Park Pty Ltd to do.”

The judge also summarised the victim impact statements from Claridge's loved ones. 

“The evidence before the court is that she was a remarkable young woman who was determined to pursue a career in the dangerous horse racing industry,” he told the court. “Her years of dedicated training were starting to bear fruit when her life was violently ended. That her death was clearly preventable, makes it all the more tragic.”

At earlier hearings, Saloon Park Pty Ltd's lawyer Robert Taylor said the company may not be able to pay the fine.

He pointed to the fact that the Cranbourne Turf Club had been convicted and fined $250,000, and submitted that if the company was fined the same as Cranbourne Turf Club, the fine would likely require Saloon Park Pty Ltd to “declare insolvency”.

In sentencing, Judge Rozen said he considered the culpability of Saloon Park Pty Ltd to have been at least as high as Cranbourne Turf Club's. 

Judge Rozen granted Saloon Park Pty Ltd a stay of six months to pay the fine. If the fine cannot be paid in that time, the company will be able to seek an instalment order.