Desperately sad news. Michael O'Sullivan, who had an awful fall 10 days ago, passed away this morning. Just 24 and a tremendously talented jockey. It's so easy to forget the risks jockeys take on a day to day basis for the sport. As a mark of respect, the fixture at Punchestown and the Point to Point fixtures at Knockanard, Nenagh and Tinahely on Sunday have been cancelled.
I feared the worse when the meeting at Thurles was abandoned 10 days ago after the 2nd race. I remember his first win at the Cheltenham festival maybe two years ago and the interview with Matt Chapman. Makes you realize that though deaths for Jockeys are rare it's a high risk sport with most jockeys breaking bones in their careers over the jumps.
RIP Michael O'Sullivan at the young age of just 24. Such sad news.
Desperately sad news. Michael O'Sullivan, who had an awful fall 10 days ago, passed away this morning. Just 24 and a tremendously talented jockey. It's so easy to forget the risks jockeys take on a day to day basis for the sport. As a mark of respect, the fixture at Punchestown and the Point to Point fixtures at Knockanard, Nenagh and Tinahely on Sunday have been cancelled.
This sport does so little to protect itself and those within it show sometimes show an amazing combination of arrogance and naivety.
Picture the scene yesterday at Taunton. Multi champion winning trainer, Paul Nicholls, has a horse called Shearer, the 4/11 favourite, running in a hunter chase and he has "jocked up" his daughter, Olive, to ride it. Of course, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. The issue is that Olive owns and trains another horse, Didero Vallis, in the same race. Spot the conflict of interest!
As it happens, Shearer won and Didero Vallis came third. But imagine if that had been the other way round! The world and its mother would have claimed "fix" and all sorts of questions would have been asked of the Nicholls. It's like seeing Patrick Mullins riding one for his father, Willie, trading at say 3/1, when Patrick, himself, owns and trains the 10/11 favourite - same scenario but the horses are tighter in the market and the favs the other way round - and the Willie Mullins trained horse ridden by Patrick wins.
Why leave yourself so open to such scrutiny? There are enough hunter chase races around for this not to happen and running Didero Vallis in one that is less competitive would also improve its chances of winning.
Comments
RIP Michael
RIP Michael.
I remember his first win at the Cheltenham festival maybe two years ago and the interview with Matt Chapman.
Makes you realize that though deaths for Jockeys are rare it's a high risk sport with most jockeys breaking bones in their careers over the jumps.
RIP Michael O'Sullivan at the young age of just 24.
Such sad news.
RIP Michael
Picture the scene yesterday at Taunton. Multi champion winning trainer, Paul Nicholls, has a horse called Shearer, the 4/11 favourite, running in a hunter chase and he has "jocked up" his daughter, Olive, to ride it. Of course, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. The issue is that Olive owns and trains another horse, Didero Vallis, in the same race. Spot the conflict of interest!
As it happens, Shearer won and Didero Vallis came third. But imagine if that had been the other way round! The world and its mother would have claimed "fix" and all sorts of questions would have been asked of the Nicholls. It's like seeing Patrick Mullins riding one for his father, Willie, trading at say 3/1, when Patrick, himself, owns and trains the 10/11 favourite - same scenario but the horses are tighter in the market and the favs the other way round - and the Willie Mullins trained horse ridden by Patrick wins.
Why leave yourself so open to such scrutiny? There are enough hunter chase races around for this not to happen and running Didero Vallis in one that is less competitive would also improve its chances of winning.
A star in the under-the-radar sort of way.