FIRST PAST THE POST!
MP Opperman’s a winner before the election starts
THE campaign trail can throw up bizarre experiences for prospective MPs but no-one running for election to the House of Commons on June 8 will able to match Guy Opperman’s timetable last Saturday.
In the morning, the Conservative candidate, aiming to retain his Hexham seat, was campaigning in the key Cumbrian target seat of Workington, knocking on doors in Silloth on the banks of the Solway Firth until 1pm. He was back campaigning on doorsteps again by 6pm.
But, in the intervening five hours, 51-year-old Opperman, first elected to Parliament in 2010 and promoted to a government whip last year, travelled to the point-to-point meeting at nearby Aspatria, walked the course and proceeded to partner For A Finish to victory. It was a second win on the 14-year-old gelding for Opperman in the last six weeks.
Despite his election schedule, Opperman will be seeking back-toback victories on For A Finish at the Hexham Border Point-to-Point on May 30 just over a week before polling day.
Opperman, whose point-to-point horse is trained by former jockey Tim Reed and who rides out for Lambourn-based Grand National winning trainer Oliver Sherwood when he is working at the House of Commons, said: ‘ That particular point-to-point is at my local racecourse so I will see plenty of voters but won’t be able to canvass them as I go round!
‘After the 2015 election, I decided to lose weight, get fit and get back in the saddle.
‘So far this season, I’ve ridden a couple of winners, had a second and third and only one spill. Just because the Prime Minister has called a general election didn’t seem a reason to me to stop racing.
‘I am pretty fit. I have shed a couple of stone. But on Saturday, after I had had to ride a finish from four out, the horse was blowing a lot but I was blowing more.
‘Most of my [parliamentary] colleagues are very curious about my riding. Some think I’m mad and others upset I don’t give them tips.’
Opperman is following a family race-riding tradition. He said: ‘My dad Michael rode a horse called Leslie in the 1966 Grand National and was brought down at Becher’s Brook second time round on only his fourth ever ride. I have been in love with racing all my life.’
Opperman’s exploits in the saddle are even more admirable, as he has returned to the sport after collapsing in April 2011 in with an undiagnosed brain tumour moments before he was due to be interviewed on Newsnight. The swift action of a doctor friend and MP colleague, Dan Poulter, prevented an already serious situation from turning even worse.
Opperman, who has also just completed a triathlon, recalled: ‘Dan is an obstetrics and gynaecology surgeon. He said you need to get to hospital right now and I had a tumour the size of a small child’s fist on the left side of my brain.’
The subsequent operation he endured, appropriately, left him with a horseshoe shaped scar on his skull.
Opperman said: ‘I had to get special clearance from my neuro-surgeon to ride under rules again. He wrote a very sweet note to the BHA doctor saying physically there is nothing wrong with Mr Opperman but you have to doubt his sanity.’
Opperman also takes an interest in racing politics, securing House of Commons backing last month to ensure that racing will now share in profits made by offshore bookmakers taking bets on the sport.
He said: ‘It has been a four-year battle to ensure racing is funded on a proper basis.
‘It is important there are advocates in the House of Commons for the racing industry and the many jobs it brings to the country.’