HERE’S a question guaranteed to divide all sports fans out there: who are the ‘toughest’ competitors in the world?
Rugby Union players? Rugby League stars? Tour de France cyclists? Olympic rowers? Marathon runners? Boxers?
In nearly 50 years of watching and reporting on different sports, I’ve met and interviewed people from all the above sports.
In terms of being the ‘toughest’, none of them come close to National Hunt jockeys.
Evidence that they are as tough as teak is provided daily on racecourses around the UK – with the latest example happening at our local Ffos Las track last Saturday.
Pembrokeshire’s James Bowen, who comes from a family of fearless horsemen, was the latest jockey to reflect that one second you can be sailing over a hurdle or fence at 35mph, and the next you can be face down in the mud wondering how you’ve narrowly escaped death.
Bowen is part of a long line of Welsh jockeys who have diced with death while competing at the highest level in racing.
When I was four stone lighter (and a lot younger!) I competed in showjumping with a pal from Cardigan called Hywel Davies.
Davies was a lot braver than yours truly and went on to a career in racing.
He was a national hero in Wales for his 50-1 win on Last Suspect in the 1985 Grand National, but it was a fall a few months earlier that defined his career as a ‘tough’ jockey for many horseracing fans.
Davies was riding Solid Rock at Doncaster when he came down at the final fence. He was rushed to hospital, but en route his heart stopped beating several times.
In his own words, he “died for a bit”.
With his life in the balance, he had to be resuscitated several times by a racecourse medical officer.
Amazingly, Davies recovered and was given the ride on the unfancied Last Suspect in the National. The rest is history.
Davies retired from racing in 1994 at the relatively young age of 37. He amassed a brilliant record of 761 wins over 16 years in the saddle.
People like Hywel Davies form part of a tradition of brave Welsh jockeys which so inspires the likes of James Bowen and his brother Sean, currently leading the National Hunt jockeys’ championship.
James Bowen’s remarkable Ffos Las afternoon was a real roller-coaster.
One minute he was living in fear of being kicked in the head after being trapped under a horse weighing 500kg (half a ton!). The next, he was riding a winner at the track.
Bowen was stuck under Saunton Surf after she fell at the final flight in division two of the 2m4f handicap hurdle at Ffos Las.
The aftermath of the fall provided a challenging dilemma for the vets, doctors and racecourse staff who were quickly on the scene – a jockey lying face down in the mud with his waist and legs wedged underneath a winded half-ton racehorse.
The sport prides itself on the welfare of both riders and horses, so the situation required a proper assessment of both rider and horse before attempting any sudden movements.
James, 23, told reporters later: “She (Saunton Surf) was getting very tired going to the last (hurdle) and perhaps, in hindsight, I should’ve let her get in tight and pop over, but I thought I had a chance and all jockeys have that competitive edge in them, don’t they?
“My foot got caught in the iron as she went down so I couldn’t roll off as she fell. She then rolled on top of my legs so I was stuck on my stomach underneath her.
“Ben Jones (fellow jockey) came over to give me a hand. He managed to get my foot out of the iron (the stirrup) as we were worried that she might start to struggle and I’d still be caught up. However, she was very tired and that kept her down.
“They spent quite a bit of time deciding whether they’d roll her over, or if they’d lift her up and drag me out.”
The Ffos Las team elected to sedate the Warren Greatrex-trained six-year-old mare and then figure out how to remove the rider – a decision Bowen said took some time to make as he lay under the animal.
Bowen added: “It was a no-brainer to sedate her as my head was right in the firing line of her hooves, and if she had struggled my head would’ve been a football getting a right kicking!
“I was just stuck there in the middle and they spent quite a bit of time deciding whether they’d roll her over, or if they’d lift her up and drag me out
“There were so many people trying to figure out what to do, and it did feel like it took a while to make a decision.
“In the end, they decided to lift her hind end and drag me out, which they knew they could do as the horse was okay; that was the most important thing. I could tell she was okay as we were lying there, and that helped.”
Bowen, who has ridden 60 winners this season (up to yesterday!) said his experiences as a jump jockey meant that he had learned to deal with both adversity and triumph.
After being released and assessed as being uninjured, Bowen casually walked back to the jockeys’ weighing room, where he happily explained the details of the drama to his brother Sean and dad Peter.
Some 90 minutes later (after Saunton Surf had been gently nursed back to the racecourse stables), Bowen was back in the saddle again – living proof of the old adage that says you should get back on a horse as quickly as possible after a fall.
His mount was the Greatrex-trained Keep Running. Obviously, he won!
Bowen told journalists: “It didn’t cross my mind that I wouldn’t ride in the next race. I had some pins and needles in my legs, which I guess isn’t a surprise as I had a 500kg horse on top of me, but once I was up and away I was fine.
“There are a lot of ups and downs in racing, so you take that approach to everything you do.”
Tough nuts, these jockeys!
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