Lewis King There was no connection with horses from family or friends in my life but I can pinpoint exactly when I became in thrall to racing. I was in my first year at university and was watching from the sofa when Sprinter Sacre won by a huge margin at Cheltenham. I was gripped by the sheer size of him and how he managed to make those fences look so small. I was hooked from there. From then, Cheltenham in March became an annual pilgrimage for me and my friends. My parents’ home also isn’t far from Newmarket. You can’t escape the racing nature of the town and I’ve been to the Guineas most years. I went to university at Lincoln and there are a few racetracks in the area such as Market Rasen and Doncaster. So from not having any real exposure to it, I tried to go racing as much as I could. Once I got into racing as a fan, I’d always paid a lot of attention to the skill of the jockeys and the trainers in getting the horses to perform and began looking at them from a sports psychology perspective. How we can get the human to perform under serious pressure like jockeys do on a daily basis, to remain calm, to view stress as a challenge and not as a threat. When the opportunity came up to come to Ireland to carry out research and do my PhD in Waterford IT in collaboration with the IHRB, it was the perfect fit for me, although I had to get through a rigorous interview process first. In a previous role, I worked with a variety of clients with mental health difficulties and that exposed me to helping individuals with severe depression and anxiety on an almost daily basis. Naturally, given my background and interest in sport, I was always intrigued by the experiences of athletes with mental health difficulties. The area fascinates me and there has been progress in recent times given the number of athletes sharing their personal stories; as well as key stakeholders in sport acknowledging that the person behind the athlete is just as important as the athlete itself. To be able to combine the sport psychology education that I’d had from Lincoln on the sport and exercise science undergraduate programme, and postgraduate education when I completed my sport science Masters, into a sport that I’m a huge fan of was a dream. When you’re doing a PhD it’s long hours and hard work, so you need to have that level of enthusiasm and to be honest, I have to rein it back sometimes! When I first came over, I managed to get the opportunity to go up to Joseph O’Brien’s and I was kind of in awe of the place. My supervisors Dr Ciara Losty and Dr SarahJane Cullen always laugh because I’ll keep them up to date with all the racing news on both sides of the water on an almost weekly basis. Moving to Ireland presented various challenges. I have a long-time partner, Jodie, and when I got the position the first few months were difficult, but these opportunities don’t come up too often! Thankfully she moved over in January and since then, the backwards-and-forwards on Ryanair every other weekend has stopped. That has made it much easier and we really love it in Ireland. My research is off the back of a preliminary study that was conducted a few years ago looking into jockey mental health. Most of us are fully aware of the challenges these guys and girls face on a daily basis — weight-making, career uncertainty, long working hours, financial difficulties in some cases. When you combine all of those, and then add in the competition element, there are a lot of potential factors that may impact a jockey’s mental health. My research is trying to find out a bit more about that. In light of that, I’ve just finished another study with jockeys and trainers exploring the prevalence of mental health issues and associated risk factors. I’m currently in the process of analysing the results and hopefully we’ll have some more information within the next couple of months. There hasn’t been as much research yet on trainers. They are under vasts amount of pressure, not just to perform on the track but off the track also. You’ve got peoples’ lives in your hands. You’ve got staff that have mortgages to pay. Your success ultimately dictates their financial safety. That’s a lot of pressure to carry. As we know in racing, things can go one way or another so so quickly. You can have an excellent horse on your hands one minute, and the next minute the horse isn’t there anymore or is off the track for a while. For smaller operations specifically, that can be really difficult to manage. We’ve not examined the specific stressors but I’d imagine those factors impact trainers’ wellbeing and mental health. So my research is about developing a research base and giving us more understanding about what the jockeys and trainers are going through and what kind of support networks and structures we might need to put in place to help them. It’s laying the foundations for future research and we are at the very early stages, but as the research progresses and we find out more, we’ll hopefully be able to start to develop pilot interventions and support strategies. Areas which are hopefully going to help the jockeys and trainers moving forward. From the outside, people have a perception of racing as a sport that’s very difficult to get access to, but the experiences I have had with the jockeys and the trainers has been brilliant. They are really engaging. Thankfully for the jockeys, there is a lot of research going on, not just in mental health but physical health, in areas such as bone health and physiology and conditioning. They are really forthcoming and the access we get to them is brilliant. It wouldn’t work without them giving up time to do the research and for that we are thankful. Former IHRB senior medical officer, Adrian McGoldrick was brilliant in developing the research base here and Jennifer Pugh, who succeeded him when he retired, is fantastic now in supporting the research. When you have people like that on board, it makes it a lot easier. I mentioned my supervisors earlier but working in an environment where you feel comfortable and safe to make suggestions, make mistakes and learn is an excellent place to be and Ciara and SarahJane are great with that. From a trainer’s aspect, it’s changing. It’s going to take time. We’ve had a lot of trainers take part in our most recent study, which is really encouraging with a view to future research. I’ve said this before but we’re not just doing this to make a nice, pretty research article. We’re doing this to help the people that do great work in the industry. For now, I’m focussing on completing these studies for my PhD to the best quality possible. In future I’d love to carry on doing the research. There’s so much more that needs to be done and I’m really passionate about the area so if there was an opportunity for me to carry it on, I’d love to do that. Outside of that, I have a huge interest in sport psychology so lecturing, working with teams or working with individuals, to help them perform to the best of their capabilities is also something I’d like to do. I had my first professional exposure to camogie this year with the Waterford U16s and it was a real thrill when they won the All-Ireland last Sunday. A year and a half ago my only knowledge of camogie was from Waterford star and racing enthusiast, Trish Jackman who was completing her PhD at Lincoln during my studies there. I had to learn about the culture of the sport and the rules of the game. What was interesting about that was that it removed all my bias. I had no preconception about how the game was supposed to look or be played, so I was able to learn objectively, and deal with the facts rather than any prior preconceptions. It was a really good experience, helping the players cope with anxiety and the stress of dealing with big occasions. They’re a talented bunch and if I played any part in helping them reach their potential then that’s fantastic. It’s been a long running joke throughout the All-Ireland but I’m still holding on to my 100% record in camogie. Long may it continue! Follow Lewis on Twitter at @LewisKing17 Racing stakeholders can access support for their mental health by using the Industry Assistance Programme (IAP) at http://www.workinracing.ie/industry-welfare/industry-assistance-programme/ or calling 1800 303 588. The IAP provides information, resources and counselling on all the challenges that life may bring, including depression, suicidal thoughts, debt and money worries, health and wellness, emotional well-being, bereavement or loss, work-life balance, managing stress and relationships. The service is free, 24-hour and confidential. Other charities that provide mental health support include Aware (1800 804848 www.aware.ie), Pieta House (01 623 5606 www.pieta.ie) and Mental Health Ireland (www.mentalhealthireland.ie).
