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A bitter sweet day for Paul Nicholls, 4 winners at Musselburgh but the last under tragic circumstances for one of the other runners…, then he heard news of the death of work rider Keagan Kirkby following a fall in a point-to-point at Charing.
R.I.P. Keagan
Such terrible news. Sympathy to all his family and friends.
RIP.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/horse-racing/breaking-keagan-kirkby-dead-fall-32045624
Dreadful news, he was only 25. The winners of course mean nothing when something like this happens. Condolences to his family and friends.
RIP Keagan Kirkby
A pretty sad weekend, especially when you lose someone so young.
Rest in peace Keegan Kirkby
A sobering reminder of the risks all riders take for our enjoyment day in and day out. My condolences to Keegan’s family, may he Rest in Peace.
I made the mistake of reading some comments on social media. A reminder that there are some seriously sick individuals out there and some of the opposition to racing is vicious.
As a close follower of Pointing, I was made aware of this awful news before it was officially announced to media channels.
Social media is a platform for unfettered comment and it makes for unpleasant reading all too often on all sides.
One pro racing person wrote the death of a horse becomes insignificant when a human dies.
That’s a red rag to a bull with the “antis” – humans choose to participate, knowing the dangers, horses don’t get a choice.
That said, using this tragedy as a vehicle to serve it up to racing generally is beyond crass – it’s vile.
Me?
I did a Twitter search on the lad’s name and the first thing I saw was a post from his mum a few weeks ago saying how proud she was of him.
I almost wept – how unspeakably awful for that poor lady.
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
https://mobile.twitter.com/Ian_Davies_
https://www.facebook.com/ThePointtoPointNHandFlatracingpunter/
It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Heartbreaking Ian. Also proves what I already knew – extreme antis are fanatics who can’t be reasoned with, the racing community often doesn’t do itself any favours and social media is a cesspit of hate and ignorance. R.I.P. Keagan
Don’t know if many TRF members have much experience of riding. When I was young I rode a bit, and to a decent level, but always found it scary; you seem so high up, and have so little control over this huge animal underneath. Reins are window-dressing, I remember, the tenuous control is with the knees on the horses’s flank. At a gallop it is really scary, over a jump is quite terrifying. I gave it up quite quickly, and have nothing but admiration for jump jockeys; the most fearless profession.
Heartbreaking for that young lad and his family. At his age, not just a life lost, but also a future.A nice touch from the owner of Fire Flyer who won at Taunton today, donated the winnings to a Keagan just fund me page
Charles Darwin to conquer the World
People are entitled to their opinions but there is a time and a place and this is not it. To use the death of this young lad for nothing more than social media point scoring is beyond the pale.
A desperately sad story and a reminder to us all how precious life is.
Lovely tribute from cartoonist Birdie too.
I’ll try to post the image when I’m on the laptop for those not on Twitter https://twitter.com/PFNicholls/status/1754936975025422586?t=5TmK4xGfQ5YmON6tM16-xA&s=19And yes befair, I was a regular rider (and faller) with the fearlessness of youth. Started again many many years later and was surprised at how terrifying it is. Still love it and apparently reasonably competent but, as you say, you’re so high up and, no matter what you think, never really in control. I would never consider riding in a race. Then again, there are people who earn a living falling off horses in films and re-enactments. Hats off to them too.
https://nitter.cz/PFNicholls/status/1754936975025422586?t=5TmK4xGfQ5YmON6tM16-xA&s=19
Twitter link for people who aren’t on it.
That’s a very special cartoon, Tonge. Thanks for sharing it.
I guess some of us (including me) have yet to realize what really happened. The DRF, Mullins’ eight G1 winners and the entire weekend action attracted way more attention than Keagan’s death.
Re-posting/sharing such tweets is a nice way to remember him.
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