Llewellyn learns how not to stop a runaway horse
Former top jockey adds another ‘stupid thing’ to the list after shattering elbow in his doomed bid
You are never too old to learn a lesson in this game – as two-time Grand National-winning jockey Carl Llewellyn has found out to the detriment of his golf swing and, more pertinently, his right elbow, which is currently in four bits.
Trying to stop a loose horse by standing in its way is, as the former jockey now knows, an overrated pastime; honourable, possibly, but unwise, definitely.
“I’ve done a lot of stupid things in my life,” said the man who rode Party Politics and Earth Summit to famous victories at Aintree, “so just add this to the list!”
When the horse and the person trying to stop it are semi-sensible what often happens is that, at the last second but simultaneously, the person jumps out of the way just as the horse takes avoiding action in the same direction.
As a human is approximately a sixth of the weight of a horse, there is only ever going to be one winner in that collision and it is the one with four legs.
Recently Llewellyn, 53, who is now a business partner with Nigel Twiston-davies and jockey coach to the trio of Jonjo O’neill, Richard Patrick and Charlie Hammond, was on his phone to an owner outside the office at Grange Hill Farm, Naunton.
There was a commotion in the yard, several shouts of “loose one” and a wild and woolly youngster was heading up through the yard for the exit towards the lane.
Llewellyn’s plan was to slow it down and catch it but, still on the phone, his concentration was not wholly devoted to either task.
On this occasion, neither the horse nor the ex-jockey took avoiding action; he just stood there waving his arms, the horse maintained its course towards the exit and just galloped through him before continuing for four miles up the road. Unlike our hero, however, there was not a scratch on him.
“I think he quickened up when he saw me waving,” joked Llewellyn after being poleaxed. “It
could have been a lot worse – he could have trodden on my chest or I could have banged my head.”
If he is off long enough, he hopes he might have a couple of shots added to his golf handicap. “You never know,” he said. “I might play better now.” The first time I broke a collarbone in the Eighties, it was Llewellyn who kindly picked me up from Leicester hospital after racing and he taught me a valuable lesson that day.
Every time I moaned, he slammed the brakes on sharply so that the seat belt tightened on my broken clavicle. I quickly stopped complaining and never mentioned it again, so I know the one thing you will not hear Llewellyn doing is complaining about it.
Though he partially owed both National winners to their regular jockeys sustaining broken legs at a crucial time, he did not get through his own career injury-free, breaking legs as well as his back one day at Cheltenham.
His most worrying injury, however, was on a British jump jockeys’ trip to southern Russia when his body went into shock following a heavy fall at Pyatigorsk, a three-hour flight from Moscow let alone from anywhere where they speak Welsh.
However, the doctors were terrific, stabilised Llewellyn at his hotel and, thankfully, the only resuscitation that needed to take place was on the ambulance, which required the remainder of the British team to help jump-start it.
Epsom already has the “Piggott Gates” but from Saturday, 65 years after he rode the first of his nine Derby winners, Never Say Die, it will have a life-size bronze of the great jockey who came to dominate the race for 30 years.
The work has been carried out by former jockey William Newton, who has also designed life-size bronzes of both John Oaksey and Jack Berry outside their respective Injured Jockeys Fund rehabilitation centres.