THIS VILE ABUSE HAS TO STOP
Saffie takes a stand on sickening threats to jockeys
SITTING in the kitchen of her parents’ house in Lambourn, Saffie Osborne has much to feel good about. In only her third season as a jockey, the 20-year-old is challenging for the Apprentice Jockey Championships and will head to the Goodwood Festival this week with several rides that could enhance her shot at the title.
The daughter of Jamie Osborne, the former National Hunt jockey, however, has not had a straightforward introduction to racing. In her first season, she suffered a horrific fall at Windsor that left Osborne with multiple fractures to her arm and ribs, and a punctured lung.
Last July, her horse reared in the starting stalls at Newmarket, dragging Osborne out of the starting gate before treading on the jockey’s leg, causing it to fracture. Just a few weeks before, however, she was involved in an even more unsettling incident when an angry punter sent her sickening abuse.
‘What he was saying was vile and threatening,’ she says, admitting it is a broad problem for the sport. ‘He told me he was going to rape me and beat me to death. I am very thick-skinned and let things like that go over my head, but something needs to be done to stop it.
‘There are a lot more female apprentices now. For a 16-year-old girl coming into the sport they probably have no idea this goes on and if they read a message like that, it could really ruin your confidence or worse — have a serious emotional effect.’
Her father reported it to the police and posted a screenshot of an offending message. He wrote: ‘I will now begin a crusade to have these people banned from all platforms and will not shy away from bringing prosecutions’.
Osborne says the perpetrator was apprehended but is reluctant to go into detail. ‘Every jockey who gets beat on the favourite suffers some sort of abuse — often they are just told they can’t ride, but there is one troll who says he will be waiting outside the racecourse to sort them out. It’s not OK. It is hard to explain to someone who has lost money on a race that it’s not one-dimensional. They have this illusion that you control everything.’
As she discusses a childhood love of horses and admits to a Love Island addiction, Osborne makes for a charming, enthusiastic interviewee. But behind the carefree demeanour is a driven, ballsy athlete who cannot remember when she last had a day off.
She saddles up for several trainers, but most rides are her father’s. ‘We get on really well and understand how each other works,’ she says. ‘Sometimes I feel more pressure for my dad than other trainers. He has helped me so much that I feel like I owe it to him and this is my turn to give it back to him. I can see how much it means to him.’
The fall at Windsor left her with a six-inch scar down her left arm.
‘I flew over the front and got trampled over by the whole field,’ she says. ‘I was knocked out for seven-and-a-half minutes. I had
won the race before and I have no recollection of that or anything that day.’ She endured a year of discomfort, with metalwork in her arm pressing on her median nerve. Only when it was removed did the pain subside.
‘I had been riding in pain all of the previous season and it was such a weight lifted off my shoulders.’
She only missed a month of racing after the Newmarket fall, but says: ‘I was so angry, I was in the running for the Apprentice Championship and it was the height of the season and to have to take a month off was gut-wrenching.’
Osborne’s most exciting prospect for Goodwood is Ouzo in the Coral Golden Mile Handicap on Friday. The horse is trained by her father and owned by a syndicate formed by her mother Katie. ‘He is a really solid top-class handicapper and he would go there with every chance,’ she says. ‘He is so enthusiastic about all his work and at Goodwood he will want to do his best.’
Osborne may find herself in the starting stalls alongside her boyfriend, Irish jockey David Egan, who won racing’s richest prize the Saudi Cup, worth $20million (£17m). She has known him since she was 15. ‘Jockeys end up with jockeys because you don’t see anyone else,’ she says, smiling. ‘Neither of us
have much of a social life. I am not fussed about not going to parties. We do talk a lot about racing — it’s hard not to when you’re obsessed.’