JOCKEYS who died competing in the sport they love have been remembered in a new book, paying homage to athletes from the Maranoa and beyond.

Author John Payne's Their Last Ride: The Fallen Jockeys of Australia, was begun back in 2010, when Mr Payne was researching jockeys who had died in specific races for other projects and he began to discover dozens more fatalities he hadn't known about. Those stories culminated in his extensive book.

Apprehensive of speaking to jockey's families, Mr Payne did end up speaking to about 20 families, and was delighted with their enthusiasm for the project.

"I was amazed at how cooperative they were and how much they egged me on to complete it, because it had never been done before and their loved ones have never had the respect paid to them they deserve," Mr Payne said.

But it wasn't always easy, if for nothing else than the subject matter.

"I found it very hard to write, because every story ends in death, and that caused me a lot of angst for about 12 months," Mr Payne said.

"Then I realised that I wasn't writing about their death. I was really writing about their lives, and themselves, so it became much easier after that."

The stories are both interesting and tragic, like that of Leanna Goodwin, who died in Roma on December 7, 1998.

The fourth Australian female rider to lose her life in a racing accident, she died in hospital after sustaining head and internal injuries after her horse, Bachelor King, fell while competing in the Class 1 Handicap two days prior.

"The previous September, Goodwin had become the first Aboriginal female jockey to have won a metropolitan race in the country at Eagle Farm, Brisbane on her father's horse, Getelion."

Seven years later, another woman, 30-year-old Paula Lane, was fatally injured while riding track-work at Bassett Park on the morning of Tuesday, May 17.

The wife of leading country jockey Tony Lane and mother of three, was flown to Brisbane for surgery but failed to recover and died the following day.

"Her husband Tony was, at the time, himself recovering from a career-ending broken neck he had sustained in a riding fall at Toowoomba months earlier."