Jockey Bravery

In the aftermath of last weekend's Grand National, the media and general focus was, quite rightly, zeroed in on Rachael Blackmore who was still making the headlines on Monday.

She was even the main feature on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour; a programme not normally associated with the thrills and spills of National Hunt racing's riders.

But jockey spills there were indeed and many would have noticed the cruel juxtaposition of England's best known female jump jockey, Bryony Frost, being quietly admitted to hospital after the race, whilst her Irish counterpart was being lauded amongst the ITV Racing podiums. Likewise, her fellow Team Ditcheat stable jockey, Harry Cobden, ended up in hospital on Saturday having taken a horrible fall before the Grand National and, seemingly, been kicked in the face in the process. By the time you read this he will have had surgery in order to realign his jaw, and expects to be out of the saddle for the next six weeks or so.

The remarkable thing is that then it is back into the saddle, back to riding out and then riding in races again. Sometime champion amateur jump jockey, Paul Webber, says that he didn't think about fear or getting injured; he said that you'd start riding out again after a bone breaking fall and then sooner or later you'd be booked for a ride and "just got on with it". No real consideration of the possibility of another ride in the back of an ambulance.

In Francesca Cumani's recent interview with Sir AP McCoy (the interview can be seen here), the twenty-times champ reeled through his list of breakages and general corporal damage:

Broke cheekbone
25 stitches in lip and nose
All front teeth knocked out, 11 implants and two bone grafts
Broke right arm and right wrist
Broke all ribs and sternum, shoulder blades, collarbones
Broke T9 to T12, L4 and L5
Still has problems with his back (2 metal plates and 4 screws either side of his T9 to T12 vertebrate)
Broke left tibia-fibula
Broke right ankle

AP rode in nearly 18,000 races and suggested that he got better at coping with the damage (and presumably, any trepidation) as he got older. He said that he learnt the importance of being alert, fit and sharp; that it was all about reactions when hitting the ground, and the risk of injury genuinely didn’t bother him. He knew the risks and knew it was dangerous. It is "all a calculated risk".

At the other end of the jumps racing skill-set, a regular correspondent with Racing Weekly and sometime ex-military point-to-point rider reported that riding in a steeplechase was, without doubt, the most terrifying thing he'd ever endured; and that included being ambushed by an IRA sniper which, by definition, he hadn't been entirely expecting, and so was less engagingly terrifying. He said that the build up in the week of a point-to-point was excruciating, as anticipation of the worst hospital neon lit outcomes took their grip.

We take our hats off to the brave professionals who are followed by squadrons of ambulances and medics and take this all as part of their day job. And the rank amateurs who dare not show their fear. For without their bravery we would not have the sport we all know and love so much.