michael o'sullivan & HYLAND.

​The untimely death of Michael O’Sullivan will weigh heavy on the sport for weeks and months to come. No one should lose their life in pursuit of our enjoyment, should they? Yes, we did not ask him to face the perils of steeplechasing on a daily basis; he did what he did for no other reason than he could not imagine his life differently.  24; his whole life ahead of him. Sad does not do justice to the heartbreak of someone so young, with so much to look forward to, having his life taken so cruelly from him.
At my more advanced age, reading the tributes and memorials, there seems something unseen and indescribably savage about someone ‘passing’ at an age years short of ‘at the prime of his life’. As someone who has never willingly faced the consequences of danger, I can have no concept of what it takes day-to-day to go out between the white rails to face danger as if it were no more scary than singing karaoke sober. As mere spectators or rash punters, we may laugh or swear when a jockey is unseated but for the families of the men and women in silks the heart missing a beat and for the religious a quick prayer must be uttered from silent mouths until the loved-one rises, limbs intact, his life spared for another day, another ride.
As a mere spectator, I owe these men and women of the weighing room a debt I cannot possibly hope to repay.
May Michael O’Sullivan rest at peace, his ambitions are no doubt unfulfilled, but he has achieved something in life so many of us fail to achieve, the respect and admiration of his peers.

Life goes on, of course. I was not intending to post anything today. I thought the day too overburdened by the death of Michael O’Sullivan and I considered myself unworthy to add my two pennyworth to the tributes from people who knew him, who worked alongside him. But though I may be one of the ‘one of us’, a lowly and unknown member of the tribe, and O’Sullivan truly in the upper echelon of the tribe, we were of the same tribe and to have ignored his passing would have seen me in the light of someone who did not care about the sacrifice he has ultimately made to the great theatre of our sport. But the announcement of his death struck me quite hard and yesterday, today and no doubt tomorrow, his death hangs at my shoulder.

Reading about him in the Racing Post this morning, I was struck by the coincidence that as an amateur Michael O’Sullivan had won a race at Cork run in the name of Jack Tyner, the last jockey in Ireland to have died as a direct result of injuries caused by a fall at a racecourse.

When I wrote ‘life goes on, of course’ a few paragraphs ago, I was intending to move on to a second subject. That I wrote on about Michael O’Sullivan is evidence that he his death has a strong influence over my thoughts.
But anyway, life goes on. Pleased to read in the Racing Post today that Nicky Henderson is seriously looking at running Hyland in the Aintree National. He needs fifteen to come out to get a run and it is reasonable to think that more than that number will be scratched before the big day. Despite what I wrote only last Wednesday that I was keen on Intense Raffles for the National, my instincts are now screaming Hyland, Hyland, Hyland. With Nicky Henderson’s record in the National being close to abysmal, it might be taking a wild punt to hoist my colours to one of his horses, yet on the other hand the man thus far has been far too successful in his career to not have an Aintree National included on his c.v. I just hope Nico can do the weight.