A jockey wept as he appeared in court charged with the murder of a pensioner who died 10 days after a fight outside a pub in Newmarket.
Levi Williams, 25, is said to have punched 71-year-old Richard Wingrove during an incident involving four people outside the Waggon and Horses pub on March 8.
Mr Wingrove died at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge on March 18.
Williams, of Holland Park, Newmarket, Suffolk, looked straight ahead for much of the hearing and later wept as he listened to proceedings from the secure dock at Cambridge Crown Court.
The judge, Mark Bishop, refused an application for bail and Williams’ partner, Lillie May, sobbed in the public gallery.
Ms May’s mother, Cathy May, and Williams’ mother, Hayley Williams, also sat in the public gallery.
Ms Williams said it has been her son’s dream to be a jockey “since he was knee high”.
She said he left home when he was 16 to go to the British Racing School in Newmarket.
The defendant, who had short-cropped, brown hair and wore a long-sleeved, grey top and light blue jeans, was not asked to enter a plea to the charge of murder during Thursday’s hearing.
The judge remanded him in custody until a plea hearing at the same court on May 9, with a provisional trial date of September 15 set.
Suffolk Police said officers were called to reports of an altercation involving four people in Newmarket High Street at 3.40pm on March 8.
Mr Wingrove was taken to hospital in a critical condition and died on March 18.
Another man, aged 45, was taken to hospital and was discharged later in the evening on March 8, the force said.
Williams had previously been arrested on suspicion of assault causing grievous bodily harm in connection with the incident and had been bailed.
He was rearrested on Tuesday and later charged with murder, police said.
A 23-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of assault causing grievous bodily harm, and a 45-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of affray, and both have been bailed by police.
