Coffey’s courage a Cup contender
LAST year Michelle Payne smashed through racing’s last glass ceiling on Prince Of Penzance to be the first woman to ride the Melbourne Cup winner.
If Harry Coffey can win the Cup, the message would reach every bit as far into homes, hearts and hospital wards.
There are 65 days to the Cup – a race in which trainer Darren Weir has set Coffey the challenge of winning aboard Signoff.
To grasp the magnitude of Coffey’s quest, you must grasp the nature of his disease.
Cystic fibrosis damages the lungs and inhibits breathing.
The lungs bleed. Sufferers are prone to infection and lethargy. They need constant hospital visits, week-long tune-ups, selfmedication of drips.
Coffey said he had never known any different, so did not feel the disease had held him back.
“When I was born my parents were told I might not make it to 20,’’ he said. ‘‘Now they (sufferers) can live until they’re 70.
“People say, ‘It’ll eventually stop you’, but that’s not how I see it. The only way it will stop me is if I go downhill real quick and can’t get my strength and fitness back.’’
As a kid, Coffey would spend up to 10 days at a time in the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. The visits are less regular now. He might spend a week or so in a hospital once or twice a year, then spend the same time at home in Swan Hill, self-administering antibiotics through a drip.
Coffey rides Prince Of Penzance, a $35 chance in UBET fixed odds for the Group 1 Memsie Stakes at Caulfield today but is merely warming the seat, perhaps for Payne.
Coffey rode Signoff – fourth in the Cup two years ago – first-up in Adelaide last Saturday, when the horse finished 11th over an unsuitable 1400m distance.
Coffey is booked to ride Signoff through to the Cup, but there are no guarantees.
“My health can go downhill very quickly,” he said. “If I’m not the right person for the horse, I will be the first to say so.
“But having the Cup as a goal is making me work harder.”