SAM TWISTON-DAVIES has a target, to be back fit for the start of the Open meeting at Cheltenham on Friday.
Freddy Tylicki’s target is somewhere at the end of a long, hard road after the jockey was paralysed following a fall at Kempton last Monday.
Twiston-Davies does not deny the dangers just that Tylicki’s fate has not changed his thinking. He has been out for a month after a thumping fall at Chepstow which precipitated the normal jump jockeys’ reaction. “You take the impact of the fall, try to get into as small a ball as possible and wait for things to go quiet,” he said. “And then you assess the damage.
“On this occasion I didn’t think I’d done too much – thought I was winded – but it turned out to be a little bit worse than that.”
A little bit worse than that was actually a lacerated spleen which put Twiston-Davies in hospital for a spell and he omitted to recall the bruised kidneys when recounting it because “I try not to mention too much because I need to be back next week.”
At only 24, Twiston-Davies has been riding for nine seasons and thus far his worst injury had been a broken nose but he was acutely aware that the usual win-em-and-wear-em approach adopted by jockeys was not going to work this time.
“The doctors say it won’t look normal for a long time. So you have to give it time but, as I’m feeling fit and healthy, I hope I can prove to them that I’m fit to ride,” he said. “If I’m going to ride at Cheltenham I need to be back by Thursday to get my eye in and make sure I’m not too rusty or that it doesn’t hurt. I’ve been riding out, I’ve schooled, I’ve done everything and I feel normal. But it’s when you’re going down to the last in a three-mile handicap chase and you’ve been pushing for a mile – that’s the one question.”
That question will be left to Dr Jerry Hill, British Horseracing Authority’s chief medical adviser. Why he is still doing it, after what has happened to Tylicki, might be a question for those not held in the thrall of riding horses in races when the chances of not making it to the finish are about one in 10?
Twiston-Davies knows that the next ride could be his last, but said: “What happened to Freddy puts everything into perspective and makes you think how lucky I am. It does make you sit back, and appreciate what you have. But don’t go out thinking that’s going to happen – when you have those thoughts – that’s it.”
That will be the same for every jockey riding today. They and the rest of the sport have already begun the fund-raising to help Tylicki for the months and years to come in which he will have to rebuild his life. Tylicki will be in their minds and they all know the Devil’s pact they make each day. And they will strike it all from their minds when the bell rings in the jockeys’ room and they go out to ride in the next race.
“It’s not a job, it’s a passion,” Twiston-Davies said. “And every race, at any track, it’s the adrenaline rush. I’ve tried lots of things to match that thrill of riding any winner. I’ve tried putting money on roulette and blackjack, rock climbing and all sorts but nothing gives that same adrenaline rush.”
Twiston-Davies knows that if he misses Cheltenham he will be back another day.
Tylicki’s riding career is over but the hope is, with enough support, he will find a way back too.
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