A FORMER Grand National jockey shown ‘lifeless’ on the Aintree turf to millions after a devastating fall is ignoring doctors and making a shock return to the saddle.
Davy Condon, who looked destined to be racing’s next big thing after being snapped up by Willie Mullins upon leaving school, was paralysed in the horrendous 2015 spill.
Davy Condon was a superstar jockey but saw his world come crashing down in a horrific Grand National fall[/caption]
A Cheltenham Festival-winning rider, he had banged in winners for Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott[/caption]
The Irish rider, who TV images showed face-down in the mud as on-course medics rushed to his side, was left with ‘spinal concussion’ and forced to retire aged 30.
Condon was one of the top riders at the time, a teenage sensation-turned-Cheltenham Festival winner and Group 1 champion.
But his world came crashing down that Saturday afternoon ten years ago when he was launched from Portrait King at the third-last fence in a Grand National won by Many Clouds.
“I was lying on the ground. I couldn’t move,” he recalled.
He spent two nights in hospital as a result with doctors ultimately telling him it was too dangerous to ride again.
Condon officially called it quits later that month and admitted to ‘feeling lost’ in the days afterwards.
But a decade later he has decided to risk it all again and race at the Curragh in Ireland later this year.
Condon will don his silks, lace up his boots and grab his whip for the Pat Smullen Charity Race on August 30.
The contest raised funds for Cancer Trials Ireland and is run in honour of nine-time champion Irish jockey Pat Smullen, who died from pancreatic cancer in September 2020.
Condon, dad to two young boys aged four and six, said he was moved to race again partly because of them.
He told the Racing Post they never saw him in the saddle – and now can’t wait to see why dad used to be such a big deal.
Condon, who worked as an assistant for Gordon Elliott before going to break in horses for Shadwell in Dubai only to return as assistant to Cheltenham Festival-winning trianer Cian Collins, said: “I wanted to ride in a charity race as a kind of mid-life crisis thing!
“I have two young boys who are four and six and they never saw me riding.
“They see the photos and are always asking me questions.
“I told my cousin Paul Townend I wanted to do a charity race and he pointed me in the direction of this one at the Curragh.
“I was emotional telling the children I was going to be in the race.
“They were jumping around the place, all excited.”
Condon won millions in the saddle, having been signed by Mullins at an early age.
He was a Grade 1 winner under the all-conquering Closutton boss, landing the 2007 Supreme on 40-1 outsider Ebaziyan.
Condon and Mullins also had success with the likes of serial winner Homer Wells, Holy Orders, Our Ben and Jayo.
But it was with Noel Meade and Gordon Elliott he would enjoy later victories, his final Grade 1 being the Irish Daily Mirror Novice Hurdle aboard Morning Assembly at Punchestown in April 2013.
Donate to his GoFundMe page here.
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