Good career-move

Some of you (ie all of you, other than those who have been living on the moon) might be aware of the serious injury which Jamie Insole's jaw suffered at Wincanton 13 days ago.  Jamie, you may recall, used to ride out here fairly often when he was starting out, and had his first race-ride on one of our inmates when partnering Asterisk in an amateurs' hurdle at Sedgefield in the spring of 2012.  Anyway, Jamie, who now works for Alan King having had his first job in Nigel Twiston-Davies' stable, relinquished his amateur status in the summer, taking out a conditional jockey's license.  At Wincanton 13 days ago he had his first ride as a conditional, and suffered a heavy fall at the first hurdle, breaking his jaw in the process.

At the time, it was obviously a very unpleasant event, both for Jamie and for his mum, who must have been beside herself with worry watching the race on Racing UK. In retrospect, though, I suspect that it might have been the best career-move Jamie could have made: while it has scuppered whatever chance he might have held of taking the conditional jockeys' title this year, long-term it could prove very beneficial as in one fell swoop he has switched from being the least famous conditional jockey in Britain to the most famous.

You might have read the article on Jamie in the Racing Post on the Saturday two days later, but Jamie's new-found fame was even better summed up by a tweet from John Hunt on the Friday evening (when Luke Harvey and Jason Weaver were holding their really, really good 'Get In' show on which AP McCoy was such a superb guest) when he said that he was watching AP McCoy but thinking of Jamie Insole.  The only disappointments were that there was no live broadcast from Jamie's hospital bedside on the 'Morning Line' that Saturday, and that he was not the guest this past Saturday when the show was broadcast from Newbury on Hennessy Day.  Even without him, one might have expected to hear the portentious tones of Clare Balding saying, "If Smad Place wins the Hennessy this afternoon, spare a thought for his devoted work-rider Jamie Insole, who is nursing horrific injuries sustained in a horror fall at Wincanton ...".

Anyway, the good news is that, I believe, Jamie is well on the way to recovery.  Fingers crossed he should be back in action in time for the V-Festival in Chelmsford next August, where he may or may not be required to stand in for Rick Astley.  And the further good news is that if he cannot make a full recovery, JETS might be able to arrange for him to be retrained to join a boyband, which should be straightforward for him as one obviously does not need to be able to sing, play an instrument or write a song to join a boyband.  One merely needs to be able to spend lengthy periods in a hair-dresser's salon, and Jamie should find that easy enough.  It's worked for Jamie Hamblett, and there's no reason why it shouldn't work for the other Jamie too. And the final piece of good news is that I've found a boyband (pictured here) into which Jamie should fit nicely.  So when he goes to the top of the charts, remember that you heard it here first.