Spare a thought for the jockeys who risk life and limb to entertain us

Last week will live long in the memory of a number of Irish jockeys for contrasting reasons.

Six times Irish Champion Jockey Colin Keane cemented his position as an elite rider on the International stage with his two Group One victories at the York Ebor Festival.

Winning a vintage renewal of the Juddmonte Stakes aboard Item for the race sponsors on Wednesday was followed the following day by the narrowest of victories on Kalpana in the Yorkshire Oaks, again for his retaining owner Juddmonte.

Dylan Browne McMonagle, who wrestled the Irish Jockeys’ Title away from Keane last season, was also on the scoresheet at York last week, but he had a real day to remember at the Curragh on Saturday when riding five winners. The 23-year-old remains in prime position to retain his Irish Championship despite his regular trips abroad, which yielded another Group Two victory at Deauville on Sunday.

On the jumping front, current pacesetter in the race for the National Hunt Jockey’s Championship, Darragh O’Keeffe, had a red letter day at Sligo last Wednesday.

O’Keeffe’s winning ride aboard Midnight Eagle in a handicap Hurdle at the west of Ireland venue on Wednesday was nothing short of extraordinary.

Darragh O’Keeffe’s saddle slipped backwards when jumping the second last hurdle and he was forced to kick his feet out of the irons to stay aboard.

Despite effectively riding bareback into the homestraight, Darragh O’Keeffe not only negotiated the final flight of hurdles safely, but also got his mount up to win in a driving finish.

Even more remarkable was the fact that in the closing stages he somehow managed to use his whip in both hands as he battled to get the well-supported Midnight Eagle home in front.

Overall there were 256 horse races run last week across Ireland and the UK as we are in the middle of the busy summer period.

With eight race meetings taking place on Saturday alone, the action was virtually non-stop for almost seven straight hours. From the first race of the day at the Curragh, which began, just after 1 o’clock in the afternoon until the final contest at 8 o’clock in the evening on the northeast coast of England at Redcar, a total of over 600 horses raced that day.

Teams of people were involved in the preparation and transport of each of those horses to their engagements and as many people again were on hand at the different venues to ensure everything happened in accordance with the rules and regulations of the sport and in as safe a manner as possible.

To a large extent we take the logistics of all this for granted as we dip in and out - watching the odd race live on TV, checking the results periodically during the day to see how our bets are getting on and then maybe catching up on some of the highlights later in the evening.

During a busy period of racing like last week, many casual racing fans won’t have been aware that there were supposed to be an additional two races run last week, but those contests had to be cancelled because all the available medical staff at the meeting were involved in attending two jockeys that had been injured in earlier races.

This happened at Killarney on Thursday where Amateur rider Joey Dunne and Conditional jockey Paddy O’Brien took bad falls and ended up in University Hospital Kerry.

Both riders are relatively OK, all things considered, Joey Dunne fractured his jaw while O’Brien will be out of action for an extended period of time having fractured both his pelvis and a vertebrae in his back.

Paddy O’Brien arrived in Kerry on the crest of a wave. His form figures going down there were 1-1-3-2-5-5-2-1-1-2 in his previous ten races, but he took tumbles from both of his mounts on Thursday, which goes to show how unpredictable the life of a jockey can be.

Then on Saturday afternoon at Killarney there was another delay to proceedings - the third race went off 55 minutes later than scheduled - as jockey Gary Noonan was treated by medical staff on course following a fall in the second race of the day. Gary was flown to Cork University Hospital by Air Ambulance to have his injuries further assessed.

It transpires that Gary Noonan suffered extensive injuries with multiple broken ribs, punctures to both his lungs and a broken shoulder blade in Saturday’s fall.

The Limerickman was enjoying a good season and his partnership with the exciting novice chaser Shadow Paddy looked set to take his career up a notch in the coming months, but everything goes on hold for him now as his number one priority is to get himself back on his feet.

Thankfully these incidents are not everyday occurrences, but we must always be mindful that the enjoyment we get from following horse racing and having a few bets does often come at a cost for many of those who entertain us.

If you did win a few quid last week on Colin Keane at York or backed Dylan Browne McMonagle’s five-timer at the Curragh or have Darragh O’Keeffe to thank for getting the gambled-on Midnight Eagle up to win at Sligo, maybe you would consider donating something to the Irish Injured Jockeys Fund.