On the crest of a wave
THERE is a long thin white scar that runs from Adrian Maguire’s shoulder up along the side of his neck and on to the back of his head. It is the only remaining physical evidence of the massive trauma he underwent after a fall from Luzcadou at Warwick in 2002 which ended his riding career.
Having been a star jockey with over 1,000 race wins, including a Gold Cup and two King Georges among many other notable rides, it was extremely traumatic for Maguire to have his career ended in this way, but lately he’s been making big headway in the training ranks, further evidence of which will be seen at Gowran Park tomorrow when stable star Celestial Wave seeks to add further to her growing reputation as one of the best young horses in the country.
Now based near Mallow in north Cork, Maguire will be 36 in April and in his riding heyday he was regarded as the best jockey never to win a championship, but that’s all behind him now as he begins to make his mark as a trainer.
Looking back, though, the loss of his career was a terrible time and the realisation that the invincibility every jockey carries as a perpetual shield had shattered is something he’ll never forget, even if himself and his wife Sabrina had already been doing a little planning for the future.
“The thing was that we weren’t planning on coming back to Ireland quite that early, but the accident certainly accelerated the plans we had. I was 31 at that stage and I would have hoped to maybe get another four or five years out of it. I’d just ridden Florida Pearl to win the King George and to my mind I was riding better than ever. I was with a great man in Ferdy Murphy and things couldn’t have been better.
“But everything changed when that happened. The amazing thing was that it was just a simple fall; it wasn’t a hard fall. I wasn’t able to get my hands out to save myself. The horse just clipped the top of the fence and seemed like he was going to fall, but he found a leg and I thought he’d stand up. But then he just went over on his side and I came off him. I hit my forehead off the ground and I heard my neck crack. When I finished rolling I couldn’t feel my right arm and at first I thought I’d broken the arm.
“I went to get up off the ground, but lucky enough the paramedics were on the scene immediately and they immobilised me. The neck started to get sore just as they arrived on the scene. I’d walked broken arms into the ambulance a few times before, but if I’d stood up that day…”
HIS voice trails off leaving the unnecessary unsaid. Two vertebrae were shattered and the lining on his spinal chord was ripped and needed repairing. The medical team which looked after him told him that if he had been treated or handled any differently from what he had been, the outcome would have been paralysis. And, even when the healing process was well underway, it soon became clear that because part of his neck was now rigid, it meant that the rest of it would now be more prone to fracture. Retirement was the only option.
“That was 2002 and I had that neck brace thing on me for more than three months. You couldn’t take it off because it was screwed into you,” he says as he indicates where the anchor points were on the front and back of his head.
“They went in and they took out two discs, and that meant that meant that vertebrae four, five and six were fused together when they put the plate in. Unfortunately that meant that if there was another fall the risk of further serious injury was too great.”
Having missed Cheltenham in 1995 due to the death of his mother and those in 1996 and 1997 due to injury, it is hardly surprising that the first thing which went through his mind as he lay on the ground at Warwick that day was: “Jesus, that’s Cheltenham gone again.”
He laughs at the memory, but reflects everything quickly came into focus and that the nature of his injuries were such that other options had to be looked at. “I didn’t sleep for five days after the operation, between the pain and the brace on my head and shoulders being so uncomfortable. Every day I was asking the doctors when would I be back riding, but it wasn’t until five month later when the brace was coming off that it became clear that wasn’t going to happen.
“I’d actually bought myself a cob to ride out on and doing a bit of hunting, but there was no chance of a return to race riding. It was a blow, of course, and at the time it felt like my world finished and I was very down for a long time afterwards. I’d wanted to be a jockey since I was nine. I’d always known what I wanted to do, so it was very hard to swallow when it was over. But I’ve refocused and since we moved back to Ireland I’m concentrating on training horses rather than riding them.”
Along with Sabrina, a native of Kanturk, they had actually found their new base at Laharn Cross near Lombardstown, a few years before the accident and had planned ultimately to move back there. Unfortunately they had to bring their plans forward, but his 11 star-studded years as a professional jockey nevertheless educated him for the job he now does and he says his time working with the likes of Michael Hourigan, Toby Balding, the late David Nicholson and Ferdy Murphy armed him for his new life.
“We had planned to do what we eventually did and that was to get involved in the point-to-point scene and thankfully that has turned out well. The majority of the horses here are still point-to-pointers and we’ve been lucky that we unearthed Denman for Paul Nichols and we also sent over his full-brother Silver Burn to him as well. Denman was sent here to be trained with the idea of selling him on and that’s what happened and Silver Burn was sold on without any run,” he says.
However, in recent times, it has been the mare Celestial Wave who has cut a dash and with six wins out of nine runs under her belt since her first race in Limerick in March 2005, including victory over Sweet Kiln in the Christmas Hurdle at Leopardstown in December, she is well on her way to becoming a superstar.
“You have to have ammunition in this game,” Maguire says, “and I’m very lucky to have Celestial Gold so early in my career. She was never going to be sold, even though there were plenty of offers. She’s owned by a syndicate from Cahir and they’re knocking great sport out of her.
“A lot of the horses I’d buy myself are going to be sold on, but she fits into a different category. She’s been bouncing since Leopardstown and I have to say I wasn’t at all surprised as they way she won. I’d said to Timmy Murphy before the race that I thought she’d win impressively and he was surprised at what I said. But he was all gleaming about her afterwards I’ll tell you.
“Timmy’s quiet style is such that it’s hard to tell he’s getting the maximum out of them, but he does and horses come back from the races fresh, whereas with other fellas they’d be hopping off her from three out and she’d come back knackered.”
It is only natural when a gem of this nature is unearthed that talk immediately turns to Cheltenham, but Maguire is too savvy for that. He knows his horse and knows what she can and can’t do. Running on fast ground at Cheltenham is, therefore, a no-no.
“The way it is is that we’ll get Gowran out of the way and then we’ll think about Cheltenham. But unless it’s soft there, she won’t be going. We would go there to be happy about a place; she’ll go there to win and for that she needs everything in her favour. If it isn’t, she ain’t going. We have to do right by her.
“There are plenty of options and while I’d love to be going to Cheltenham, particularly with one which has a real chance, there is still no point letting your heart rule your head.”
Maguire says he has a “real lovely bunch of horses” in the 40 box yard some of whom are pointers and others will be ready to go to the track in the spring. “Good ammunition,” he says.
His new job is a lot different from his old one and he says that riding was easy by comparison with training.
“When I was riding, you’d have four or five rides a day and if one of them was a disappointment, then you had the next one to look forward to. I could turn my back on them if they had problems. I can’t do that now.”
Even so, Maguire is relishing the challenges ahead more than at any time in the past and even if his career as a jockey was curtailed early, he’s made best use of the lessons he learned during a stellar career and the aim now is to build as much of a reputation for himself in the training game as he did while riding.
Don’t back against him doing just that.
