The art of the fall: The only cert in horse racing

HEARTBREAK: Jamie Moore falls from leader Goshen at the last during the JCB Triumph Hurdle. 

In Patrick Mullins’ mind it resides as a series of snapshots. Out front. In the air. Hurtling forward. Floored. So much time spent on dashing thoroughbreds is a blur moulded by split second actions but in these moments the cloud clears to reveal one cruel certainty: It was a fall.

That is the real cert in this game. Night follows day. A jockey can expect to fall roughly once in every 15 rides in national hunt racing. Mullins suffered one routine dose aboard Douvan during the 2018 Queen Mother Champion Chase. A long-awaited showdown 12 months in the making between the French gelding and Altior prematurely ended at the fourth-last fence.