Hastings\u2019 jockey Amadeo Perez has a near-unassailable nine-winner advantage in the race to be crowned the track\u2019s leading rider for a record-equalling eighth time \u2014 which is just as well, as the veteran is currently convalescing at home following a nasty fall last weekend and will miss the rest of the season.<\/p>\n
Perez was hurled head-first into the Hastings\u2019 dirt when his mount, Apprehend, clipped heels with a rival and fell while galloping at close to full speed in the day\u2019s feature race. It\u2019s a fall that happens in horse racing from time-to-time and Perez, as well as his wife and children, will be thankful that it wasn\u2019t more serious.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmadeo had a concussion and will have to wear a neck brace for the next six weeks, but he\u2019s as strong as they come and, as long as his recovery goes as planned, he\u2019ll be back next season,\u201d explained Perez\u2019s agent \u201cTrapper\u201d Barroby.<\/p>\n
Perez went down heavily and was unconscious for a while, forcing stewards to abandon the race while it was being run to enable the stricken rider to be appraised by waiting medics. His mount, Apprehend, suffered no injuries and walked off under his own steam. The race will be re-run on the final Saturday of the season.<\/p>\n
The incident brought a collective gasp from the grandstand and reminded everyone present, not least Perez\u2019 fellow riders, that danger lurks on every turn of the track. However, the inherent risks in this adrenalin-fuelled sport are also what keep us all coming back. Once riders start to worry about what can go wrong, then it may be time to consider another line of work.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you worry about it, then you\u2019d better quit,\u201d said retired jockey Richard Hamel.<\/p>\n
Hamel, himself a five-time leading rider at Hastings, had his own fair share of thrills and spills during an illustrious Hall of Fame career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t get too badly injured. I broke an arm once and I broke my ankle. Most of the time I had concussions and they only took about a week. I fell once in Edmonton on a Sunday and they thought I was dead because I was knocked out cold. The horse broke my helmet and pushed it right off my head. If the chin strap hadn\u2019t broken, he would have crushed my skull,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI ended up with five stitches behind my ear and I was laid out cold on the track for about 20 minutes. They brought me to the hospital, did an MRI on my brain, everything was all good, and I was back riding on Wednesday.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hastings\u2019 veteran rider Antonio Reyes was in the same race as Perez last weekend but only heard the commotion behind him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can happen very quickly,\u201d the Mexican explained. \u201cYou have to always be aware.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perez was due to ride Sunny Wishes in the big race on Saturday, the penultimate day of the season, but his place in the saddle will be taken by in-form jockey, Kimal Santo. The \u201cnext man up\u201d philosophy, it seems, applies to racing, as much as any other sport. The Trinidadian Santo has ridden a career-best 40 winners so far this year and currently sits in second place in the standings, just those nine elusive wins behind Perez.<\/p>\n
A talented rider, Santomay well be a beneficiary of his colleague\u2019s time on the bench but neither he, nor any of his colleagues, will revel in Perez\u2019 absence. They know all too well they could easily be next. Riders may chase individual glory but they win, lose and fall together. The bonhomie goes only so far, however, and they will ask and receive no quarter the next time they sit beside each other in the starting gate, knowing that things can go badly wrong in an instance but needing to do the one thing they must do: ride fast.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, it certainly gets the adrenaline running, I\u2019ll tell you that,\u201d Richard Hamel said. \u201cNothing beats leaving the starting gate in a race.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hastings Selections:Saturday, October 11<\/p>\n
First race: 2:30pm<\/p>\n
Race 6. The $50,000 Glen Todd Ascot Graduation for Two-Year-Olds Ole\u2019s Surprise stumbled leaving the gate on his debut but still ran-on well to be second. He should appreciate the extra distance and looks a major threat to likely favourite, Debrusk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hastings\u2019 jockey Amadeo Perez has a near-unassailable nine-winner advantage in the race to be crowned the track\u2019s leading…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[82976,64210,67254,3004,82977,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-188672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-amadeo-perez","tag-hastings-racecourse","tag-michael-bye","tag-racing","tag-richard-hamel","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}