With Jim Crowley, Joe Fanning and Henry Brooke among the high-profile jockeys to have called time on their riding careers in the last month, the reality is that, however long or short a jockey’s career, there is still a working lifetime ahead and, inevitably, a need to retrain. The Injured Jockeys Fund has long been a major supporter of JETS (jockeys education and training scheme), helping jockeys prepare for life beyond the saddle. This year, that support has been extended with the introduction of the IJF Enterprise Award, recognising former jockeys who have successfully retrained. A great example is last year’s Richard Davis Jockey Club Achievement Award winner, Thomas Brown, now a paramedic. From the saddle to the siren, he talks about finding himself working in the ambulances he once spent his riding career trying to avoid.
“I look back on my time in racing, riding 123 winners, from the John Smith’s Cup on Educate to riding for Jeremy Kyle and all the days in between. I had the best years of my life at Kingsclere. Racing makes you as a person, gives you a good work ethic and an unbelievable grounding, and takes you around the world. I think it sets you up for life through the skills it gives you. When I hurt my knee in a fall while riding out, I went to A&E and was sent home after an X-ray. I then went to Peter O’Sullevan House for physio, where they immediately flagged that I needed an MRI. It showed I had done my ACL and MCL, as well as suffering a further tear. I spent a couple of months there every day, using the hydrotherapy pool, physio and strength and conditioning. That was when I started speaking to Nick Gordon and, from there, JETS. By March, I was in an ambulance. I wouldn’t be where I am now if I hadn’t walked into Peter O’Sullevan House. I went in for physio; I never expected it to change the direction of my life.
“JETS got in contact with one of the racecourse doctors straight away, and I went up to meet the paramedics who work on race days. The only time I’d ever been in a medical room at a racecourse before was when I’d singed my backside on the coals in the sauna at Southwell! I was 30 and wondered whether it was too late to start again, but they assured me it wasn’t and said they liked people who came from other industries with some life experience. JETS also put me on a first-aid course before I started my training, so I had an idea of what I was getting into. I began as an emergency care assistant, working on an ambulance alongside a clinical member of staff. Three years on, I’m a qualified clinician and emergency medical technician and am about to start my paramedic degree.
“Racing gives you so many transferable skills: quick reactions, communication, resilience, problem-solving, dealing with heightened emotions, handling pressure and being dependable. In those blue-light situations, you get a vague description of what you might be walking into, then you arrive and have to quickly work out what’s going on while remaining calm. It’s a very different type of race, but the same adrenaline. I picked up a man from Mildenhall who was having a heart attack and, within 27 minutes, he was on the table at Papworth having a stent put in. It’s unbelievable, really.
“I work in the West Suffolk area, so we’ve been called out to Newmarket Heath a few times. Now I’m qualified, I hope to pick up some shifts on the medic bus there. It would be a real full-circle moment to be helping people on the Heath where I spent so much of my riding career.” The work is incredibly rewarding, and I’m still around racing. I go to the July Cup every year and I still love it. But now I have a real sense of perspective. When you get into racing young, you look up at jockeys and think that’s everything; you become so immersed that it’s all you think matters. Now I see things differently. I’m so grateful to the Injured Jockeys Fund and JETS for all their support, and winning this award was nice recognition of a journey I’ve really enjoyed.”
Entries are open until August 28th for this year’s Richard Davis Awards including the IJF Enterprise Award recognising entrepreneurship, innovation and initiative in starting or developing their own business.
For more information please click via the link – https://bit.ly/4gmYeVI