Paul Hanagan defies odds to make it back for Ebor Festival
The former champion jockey does so in the belief that he has never been stronger thanks to the NHS staff – and rehab experts at Jack Berry House in Malton – who have nursed him back to fitness.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdHe rides at Beverley tomorrow before lining up at this week’s Ebor Festival at York where he has enjoyed so much success for his principal trainer, Richard Fahey.
“It’s been the hardest six months of my life. It was touch and go whether I would make it back,” Hanagan told The Yorkshire Post. “But I don’t think I’ve ever been as fit in all my career.”
Words that have even more resonance given how Hanagan pushed himself to the physical limit to secure his title successes in 2010 and 2011, he has been out of action since his mount Requinto Dawn came down at Newcastle on February 15.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdStill unsure whether the horse clipped heels with the horse in front, or stumbled in a freak accident, he instantly knew that he was in trouble because there is no ‘give’ in the unforgiving all-weather surface. “When I hit the floor, I new straight away because I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t get my breath. I’m thinking I’ve done my kidney and that won’t be too bad,” he said.
“I wanted to get up, and couldn’t get up, and that was the scariest thing that has ever happened to me. I couldn’t move my feet at first – you can’t imagine what was going through my head.”
Rushed to Newcastle Royal Infirmary by ambulance – medics were fearful of internal injuries – scans revealed three separate fractures to Hanagan’s vertebrae.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdThe most serious was to his T6 vertebra between the shoulder blades – it had been completely crushed by the fall’s impact. Yet, while doctors wanted to give the injuries time to heal, Hanagan eventually underwent keyhole surgery which saw a special cement used to fuse the damaged bones back together.
He was also warned in Newcastle’s hospital that it would be a year before he could ride again. “The bog-standard arrogance of a jockey wasn’t going to let that happen,” said Hanagan.
While he will always be in the debt of spinal surgeon Daniel Fagan, and his team, the jockey’s recovery coincided with the Covid-19 lockdown – and the trauma of helping ‘home school’ his two children while his wife Anna juggled her work at Fahey’s yard.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdHowever, the reopening of Jack Berry House, the Injured Jockeys Fund centre, provided salvation and a new-found appreciation of the help available to riders.
Its team put in place tailor-made exercises to help Hanagan, 39, regain his strength, and posture, before he resumed riding on the gallops three weeks ago. He has already been buoyed by the camaraderie at the Fahey yard.
For the first time, he has actually put on weight and feels stronger for his endeavours in the gym. He hopes to record his 2,000th career winner by the end of the year – he’ i just 24 victories shy of the landmark – and re-establish himself as one of the weighing room’s pre-eminent riders.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdHe does so with the realisation that he is the lucky one. “It’s just been a very character-building five or six months, but luckily I have had good support,” added Hanagan. “Everyone moans about the NHS at times, but they couldn’t have been better. I look back to when I was lying on my back and being unable to move my toes. Just to get back on a horse, at times I didn’t think it was ever going to happen.”
Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.
Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdAnd that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.
Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.
If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.
Sincerely. Thank you.
James Mitchinson
Editor
Comment Guidelines
National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.