Flanagan ‘lucky’ to face six weeks out after fall

THE perils of being a jockey are regularly documented and Seán Flanagan was left thanking his lucky stars despite suffering a fall at Tramore on Sunday which will see him sidelined for up to six weeks.

Flanagan fractured his tibia at the Waterford track following a crashing fall from Icelip – which subsequently rolled over him – at the second-last fence in a handicap chase, but Noel Meade’s stable jockey believes the injury could have been much worse.

Were it not for the new back protectors which Irish jockeys are now wearing, the Wexford jockey could have left with much worse damage and he knows he was lucky to come out of it with a relatively minor injury given what could have happened.

“Unfortunately, I have a small fracture at the top of my tibia on my left leg. After I came down the horse rolled over and landed on top of me. For the first few seconds I was in excruciating pain, but that wore off and I actually walked away,” he said in an interview.

“It looks like I will miss Listowel, which is a pity, but I was very lucky really. The new back protectors we are wearing are amazing. I am black and blue everywhere on my body apart from where the back protectors cover. From my hips down, I am literally black and blue. They are some job.”

Only Andrew Lynch has had more mounts this jumps season than him (212 compared to 200), but Flanagan’s 20 winners left him flying high in fourth behind Rachael Blackmore in the Irish jockeys’ championship. He is sure to lose ground in that race, but should return by the time the season really kicks into gear in the autumn.

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Flanagan will miss Killarney’s four-day festival which kicks off today, but the focus is on the Flat for its opening day with the Listed Vincent O’Brien Ruby Stakes (3.40) the headline act.

The €50,000 contest has attracted a field of seven and despite winning four in a row from 2009-’12, Aidan O’Brien has been left out in the cold for the past five renewals and bids to buck that trend at the Kerry venue.

The Ballydoyle maestro saddles likely favourite I Can Fly as Seamie Heffernan’s mount hopes to build on a fine fourth in a similar event at the Galway Festival when she was doing all her best work at the finish.

That was over seven furlongs and the step up to a mile should play to the strengths of the daughter of Fastnet Rock – which was well down the field in her previous runs in the English 1,000 Guineas and Epsom Oaks – although there are plenty which will give her something to think about.

Fozzy Stack’s Harvestfortheworld struggled to get going when well beaten in the Group One Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh in July, but that form can be discarded dropping well down in grade.

The So You Think filly was third behind Michael Halford’s Platinum Warrior and subsequent Irish derby hero Latrobe (Joseph O’Brien) on her previous run in the Group Three Gallinule Stakes and she is also of interest in an intriguing renewal.

Elsewhere on the card, Ger Lyons’ frustrating but talented Would Be King should be opposed in the Celtic Steps Maiden (2.30) after his Galway flop, while John Joe Murphy’s Ballybrit scorer St Gallen is favoured to defy a 7lb hike in the weights to land a telling blow in the Killarney Advertiser Handicap (3.05).