One Hell of a Ride

Haven't got it yet but I will, enjoyed the extract about Harchibald in the RP.

Question lads, is he an underachiever?, not in the sense of him ****g up rides on good horses, but in the sense that maybe if he had been perceived as more of a professional, he might have gotten a big job accross the water to go with the meade job a la Geraghty and Walsh.

His behaviour could of held him back or perhaps he is happy enough just with the job with Noel, we may find out more in the book.

Anyway he is a great horseman and his ride on Frenchmans Creek in the William Hill National Hunt Handicap Chase at the festival was in my opinion one of the best i have seen, just brilliant.

I'd never question his ability anyway

Agreed brilliant jockey

I'd love to hear him speak out on this whip rubbish I tell ya.

Massive underachiever in a sense, yes. To hear and read the way AP, Ruby and BJG talked about him before the Cheltenham Festival in 2004, and then their comments alongside the comments of young jockeys like Puppy Power, Russell and Davy Condon in the book just shows you where he ranks in the jockey's minds.

He said it himself, that he may have been a natural but he didn't like labelling his ability as "God-given" either because it implied he didn't have to work at all. He certainly did work but didn't have to work as hard as everybody else. Especially in the early days.

This is borne out by the number of times he turned up drunk for a race meetings and still rode as if he was the best jockey on the planet. He was such a natural he could afford to do that, and take the chance that the trainers wouldn't mind because compensating for a night of drink was an incredible amount of horsemanship.

So who knows what might have been if he had been more of a 'professional'? If he'd drank less, partied less, messed less, enjoyed himself less, and focused just on riding and being a dedicated sportsperson. One thing though - from reading the book, I don't know Carberry at all - is that it's obvious that if you took away the messing and the drinking, you took away a large part of Paul Carberry. His riding ability was fueled by his love of life, and if he hadn't those kind of outlets to enjoy himself, his riding may have been inadvertedly affected too.

What we know for certain is that he possessed the talent to ride for any jumps trainer in the world. Whether they possessed the patience to put up with the other stuff as Noel Meade did is another question !!

A good summation there.

he rode one for a friend of mine..he was told nicely to keep it up with the pace and go on at the 2nd last..the lads had a good cut at it,8s to 4s.he dropped it out and came through at the end to be beaten 4l into 3rd..he got down said nothing and dissapeared..the horse won next time out by 8l..the fact that hes a great jockey is without question..but the above is the other side of him!!