Good luck to Bryan Cooper

The mandatory requirements of having to wear a helmet and back-protector and also having two ambulances follow you around while doing your job paints a clear picture of how dangerous the life of a jockey is.

A total lack of fear has always been a prerequisite for jockeys which explains why it is almost exclusively the preserve of young men. The constant risk of injury, including life-altering injuries, doesn’t seem to fully register with many that choose this profession and the buzz they get from winning races easily outweighs any potential downside.

Those jockeys that suffer what the rest of us would describe as horrific injuries often can’t wait to get back in the saddle. Jack Kennedy breaking his legs five times by the age of 23 and as eager as ever to return, Davy Russell’s well-publicised return from life-threatening injuries, these guys really are a different breed.

In life in general, but also in sport, when fear creeps into the equation there is often no way around it. Fear can be irrational, such as a fear of flying, but when it takes hold it can be extremely debilitating. When I was a teenager I used to clean windows for extra pocket money and would run up and down ladders all day. I never considered it dangerous in any way, not even after I had a fall off the ladder trying to reach the corner of an upstairs window rather than simply moving the ladder.

Many years later I had a loose tile on the roof of my house and thought I’d fix it myself. I put a ladder up to the roof and started to climb with no thought of any fear, but when I got to within about three rungs from the top my legs wouldn’t move. I simply couldn’t go any further up. I was shocked, I’d no idea where that fear had come from. I came back down the ladder without any issues. Then I tried to go back up several more times, but my body would always freeze at the same point.

Bryan Cooper, who announced his retirement from the saddle last week, developed a similar fear of falling. I can only imagine how debilitating that has been for him and it makes you wonder how he managed to ride at all, never mind ride winners. In other sports where you see a golfer with the yips or a dart player with dartitis, they simply cannot contend, but in national hunt racing you would imagine that the slightest whiff of fear would be transmitted to the horse and this must make an already dangerous situation even more perilous.

Credit must go to Cooper for revealing the truth behind his decision to retire. It would have been much easier for him to simply state he had fallen out of love with the game or wanted new challenges. He has taken a brave route to open up about the issues he was having.

We ran a competition on irishracing.com in advance of Cheltenham this year where entrants had to predict the outcome of the Prestbury Cup and the Gold Cup. Out of 1,400 entries 76 people managed to correctly pick both the 18-10 victory for Ireland and Galopin Des Champs as the big race winner. Last week we held a random draw to determine who would win the €6,000 prize on offer - either a trip to Cheltenham 2024 or a Caribbean Cruise - and the winner is Bernard McKey from Dublin.

I spoke to Bernard over the weekend and it’s wonderful to find out that he is not only a huge racing fan, but also chose the Cheltenham trip in preference to the Caribbean option (560 entrants chose Cheltenham versus 835 that preferred the cruise).

Bernard first got his love for racing through his uncle Desmond who was a major owner from the 1970s through to the late 1980’s. He had horses in training primarily with Bunny Cox and Pat Hughes and these included Fort Fox which won two Punchestown Gold Cups and Abbey Glen which finished second in the 1988 Arkle Chase at Cheltenham. Ragapan, who finished second to Weaver’s Hall in the 1973 Irish Derby, was another significant horse he owned.

Bernard himself has attended Cheltenham a fair few times over the years - his first visit was when Dawn Run won the Gold Cup in 1986 and his most recent was when Kicking King won the race in 2005 and he had him backed at 33/1 ante post. I hope Bernard has a great time at the 2024 Festival and a big thanks to everyone else that entered the competition.

Finally, with the Aintree Grand National on in a couple of weeks, it will be interesting to see which of the leading contenders change hands in the run up to the big race. I always feel there is something vulgar about wealthy owners buying horses in the run up to big races just so they can bask in the glory.

I’d say if the the Grand National winner was auctioned off on the track after it passed the winning line there would be a swarm of bidders wanting to lead ‘their’ horse into the winner’s enclosure.