A nasty encounter with a foal almost cost jockey Harry Skelton a whopping £500,000 after it kicked him in the face, but luckily it didn’t stop him competing at Cheltenham
Harry Skelton rode to Cheltenham glory after nearly losing an eye when he was kicked in the face by a foal.
The former champion jockey steered The New Lion to victory in the Turner Novices’ Hurdle on Wednesday sporting a massive shiner. But he nearly did not make the off after coming a cropper in a freak accident in his yard at home.
One of four foals he and wife Bridget care for planted a hoof in his face. The blow left him nursing a badly swollen right eye – and was centimetres from blinding him.
It threatened to knock him out of the Cheltenham festival where he has ridden nine previous winners.
The kick could also have cost him £500,000 – the amount he is set to pocket for winning the David Power Jockeys’ Cup for winning the most televised races on ITV this season. But after a few stitches he climbed back in the saddle to notch another famous win.
Harry, 35, whose dad Nick was a gold-medal winning Olympic showjumper, said: “I’m just delighted. This place is magic. When you get a winner here it is that special.”
Harry said he was relieved to make the start after the accident at his home in Alcester, Warwickshire.
“We’ve got four foals at home and between me and my wife. We look after them,” he said. “On Sunday morning Bridget went off to watch point-to-pointing.
“She said to me: ‘Will you go and water the foals before you go racing to Warwick?’ I was in the last two races at Warwick so I was planning on doing these four foals then go out on the bike for an hour before I went racing.
“I went in and did the two colts and then I went in to sort the two fillies who were over the other side. I got to the water trough and one of the fillies came around the back of me and kicked out and caught the side of my right eye.
“It split the side of my eye around my eyebrow. My vision was fine so I thought ‘thankfully it has not kicked my eye’. But it has definitely kicked something as I had a load of blood pouring out everywhere.
“I jumped in the car and drove 15 minutes to Warwick racecourse to see the doctor who stitched it up and here we are. He said it might be a bit swollen tomorrow morning but you will be absolutely fine and just make sure you keep a bit of ice on it.
“It could have been a lot worse. But thankfully we are all alright and I’m here at the Cheltenham Festival.
“You think at the time, ‘this isn’t ideal. But it could have happened any time.
“It wasn’t like I was walking around the back of the foal patting it on the bum. I was literally doing what we do every day and it just decided it wanted to give me a bit of a hiding.
“It was annoying at the time but we are all good now. However it could have been the worst injury of the lot.
“I got on the phone to Bridget straight away and told her I was on my way to the races to have my eye stitched up and she was like, ‘flaming hell what have you done?’ When I told what happened she knew which foal it was that had done it.”
The Queen managed to avoid a mishap of her own by hanging onto her hat when the wind threatened to blow it away as she watched the racing from the Royal Box with Princess Eugenie.
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