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Much respect from me to Harry Challoner. I was 12 and a non swimmer when I got out of my depth at Blackpool. An eleven year old girl swam out, put me on my back and got me in. She told me she had done some life saving education at her school.
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https://www.racingpost.com/news/britain/former-jockey-george-chaloner-labelled-a-real-life-superhero-after-saving-a-child-from-drowning-aZBtK6d01dMo/
Former jockey George Chaloner labelled 'a real-life superhero' after saving a child from drowning
'When I got to him, he was being pulled out by the rip tide and about to go under'
Anyone prepared to sit on a racehorse as it gallops full pelt at 35 miles an hour in the middle of a field of 30 others is brave, but George Chaloner has taken things to a new level by saving a child from drowning.
The ex-jockey, who is now stud manager at Cliff Stud in North Yorkshire, swam out to rescue a youngster who "was about to go under" last weekend.
But he rejected the idea that he had done anything extraordinary, in an incident that only came to light because his partner Daisy Jones reported it in a post on Facebook and hailed him "a real-life superhero".
Explaining what happened, Chaloner said: "We went on holiday to Filey with the kids. We were at the end of Filey Bay, Reighton Sands, with the boys all day. We were just about ready to go and there were some shouts of 'help' from the sea.
"Everyone stopped and looked but no-one went down. After ten or 15 seconds, I went down with another tall lad. A woman at the side of the sea said 'those kids are drowning, I can't swim'."
Chaloner, 33, went into the water with the other rescuer and he recalled: "The kids were playing in the breakers but the tide had come in and pushed them into a pool and they'd got out of their depth. I couldn't touch the floor there.
"There were two girls who were shouting 'my brother, my brother!' and pointing to a little lad about 15 or 20 feet away. He was eight or nine and when I got to him he was being pulled out by the rip tide, on his last legs and about to go under.
"I got him and swam him halfway back where someone had come out with a half-bodyboard and we got him on that and brought him back."
Chaloner, a National Horseracing College graduate who rode well over 200 winners on the Flat before his career was ended by injury in 2017 at the age of just 25, added: "I haven't swum properly for years, but I did a lifeguard thing when I was young and I'm confident in currents.
"The kids were fine but they were jiggered and so was I. I'm not as fit as I used to be and I'd legged it from the top of the beach, swum out about 50 feet and brought the lad back in. I was ready for a cup of tea!
"It turned out two women we had seen were the kids' mothers, but they were deaf and didn't hear them shouting; they just saw them splashing about and didn't know they were in trouble."
Chaloner, whose biggest wins as a jockey came in the Wokingham Handicap and Northumberland Plate in 2014, will be back at York next week as he serves as lead horseman there.
"I work closely with the vets and doctors and monitor the horses from the stableyard, to the pre-parade ring and so on and if there's any bother I'm the first one on the scene," he said.
He is sure to receive plenty of congratulations through the Ebor meeting, but when it was suggested he was a hero, he said: "I don't know about that. You just hope that if it was one of your kids, somebody else would do it for them."
Former jockey George Chaloner labelled 'a real-life superhero' after saving a child from drowning
'When I got to him, he was being pulled out by the rip tide and about to go under'
Anyone prepared to sit on a racehorse as it gallops full pelt at 35 miles an hour in the middle of a field of 30 others is brave, but George Chaloner has taken things to a new level by saving a child from drowning.
The ex-jockey, who is now stud manager at Cliff Stud in North Yorkshire, swam out to rescue a youngster who "was about to go under" last weekend.
But he rejected the idea that he had done anything extraordinary, in an incident that only came to light because his partner Daisy Jones reported it in a post on Facebook and hailed him "a real-life superhero".
Explaining what happened, Chaloner said: "We went on holiday to Filey with the kids. We were at the end of Filey Bay, Reighton Sands, with the boys all day. We were just about ready to go and there were some shouts of 'help' from the sea.
"Everyone stopped and looked but no-one went down. After ten or 15 seconds, I went down with another tall lad. A woman at the side of the sea said 'those kids are drowning, I can't swim'."
Chaloner, 33, went into the water with the other rescuer and he recalled: "The kids were playing in the breakers but the tide had come in and pushed them into a pool and they'd got out of their depth. I couldn't touch the floor there.
"There were two girls who were shouting 'my brother, my brother!' and pointing to a little lad about 15 or 20 feet away. He was eight or nine and when I got to him he was being pulled out by the rip tide, on his last legs and about to go under.
"I got him and swam him halfway back where someone had come out with a half-bodyboard and we got him on that and brought him back."
Chaloner, a National Horseracing College graduate who rode well over 200 winners on the Flat before his career was ended by injury in 2017 at the age of just 25, added: "I haven't swum properly for years, but I did a lifeguard thing when I was young and I'm confident in currents.
"The kids were fine but they were jiggered and so was I. I'm not as fit as I used to be and I'd legged it from the top of the beach, swum out about 50 feet and brought the lad back in. I was ready for a cup of tea!
"It turned out two women we had seen were the kids' mothers, but they were deaf and didn't hear them shouting; they just saw them splashing about and didn't know they were in trouble."
Chaloner, whose biggest wins as a jockey came in the Wokingham Handicap and Northumberland Plate in 2014, will be back at York next week as he serves as lead horseman there.
"I work closely with the vets and doctors and monitor the horses from the stableyard, to the pre-parade ring and so on and if there's any bother I'm the first one on the scene," he said.
He is sure to receive plenty of congratulations through the Ebor meeting, but when it was suggested he was a hero, he said: "I don't know about that. You just hope that if it was one of your kids, somebody else would do it for them."
btw why did his partner call him a "real-life super hero" rather than just "hero"?
It chafes like the vogue for "10-year anniversary" rather than "10th anniversary".
It chafes like the vogue for "10-year anniversary" rather than "10th anniversary".
So well done. Tautology excused by the happy outcome. For me. If you’ve ever been caught in a rip tide. The scariest thing I’ve ever encountered.
Went to Filey as kids in the 50s ,when on hols in Scarborough , ' you are not swimming there ' we were told .
Aug 14, 2025 -- 7:18AM, Ramruma wrote:
btw why did his partner call him a "real-life super hero" rather than just "hero"?It chafes like the vogue for "10-year anniversary" rather than "10th anniversary".
Social media requires gross exaggeration, it's the rools.
'A child was about 15 metres into the water, and had gotten into difficulties, so my partner swam over and helped him out = less clicks.
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