Injured war veteran Captain Guy Disney rides into history at Sandown

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/feb/13/war-veteran-guy-disney-history-sandown

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Politely but firmly Captain Guy Disney declined all requests for an interview here on Friday. Even after finishing third aboard Ballyallia Man in the Royal Artillery Gold Cup, Disney wanted the attention to be directed elsewhere. “It’s been done before,” was all he would say as he returned to weigh in, having just ridden under rules for the first time since losing his right leg below the knee while serving in Afghanistan. “That’s just how he is,” a friend of the rider said afterwards. “He doesn’t think he’s out of the ordinary.”

Many would differ. There was a brief moment in this race, as Ballyallia Man moved into third place and started to gain ground on the leader, Cowards Close, when it seemed that Disney was in with a chance of victory. After a slow jump at the final fence it was clear that third was as good as it was going to get for him but he had made history as soon as the tapes went up, becoming the first jockey to ride under rules in Britain with a prosthetic limb.

Disney suffered his injury when his vehicle was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade in Helmand province in July 2009, an attack in which Private Robert Laws, 18, was killed. Disney had ridden frequently in point to points before leaving for Afghanistan, recording five winners from nearly 100 rides, but his path back to the saddle was a difficult one. An initial application for a rider’s licence in 2010 was turned down by the BHA but an undaunted Disney was finally approved to ride again in November.

The Royal Artillery Gold Cup is an oddity in the racing calendar, a race restricted to horses whose owners have a direct connection to the army, either as serving members themselves or as a close relative of someone who is. It is worth only £5,000 in cash but, to those who compete for it, its value is considerably more in terms of prestige and history. The roll of honour stretches back nearly a century.

This Gold Cup will never have any great relevance to the more famous event of the same name at Cheltenham next month but for Disney it was an ideal target. He rode in the race in both 2008 and 2009, falling on his first start and then coming home last of five finishers the following year, so his first trip back to Sandown since his injury also produced his best finishing position.

Cowards Close, from the stable of the champion trainer, Paul Nicholls, turned out to be a worthy favourite under his jockey, Lance Bombardier Jody Sole, but the 2015 renewal of the Royal Artillery Gold Cup will be remembered as a rare example of a race with two winners.

Elsewhere on the Sandown card, there was a hint of what may be in store at Cheltenham next month when the favourite Uranna took the Listed Jane Seymour Mares’ Novice Hurdle for Willie Mullins and Ruby Walsh.

Uranna was Walsh’s only ride on the card and the only Mullins-trained runner anywhere on Friday, so, with the benefit of hindsight, her starting price of 7-2 looked generous as she made smooth progress to lead approaching the final flight. The seven-year-old then stayed on strongly to beat Rons Dream by three and three quarter lengths.

Uranna is likely to step up to Grade One company for her next start but such are the strength and depth of the Mullins stable that she is expected to bypass Cheltenham and Aintree to run instead in a mares’ event at Fairyhouse in April.

“She improved for the step up in trip today,” Walsh said. “To be fair to the owners she’s been in the yard a good while and she’s taken a long time to come to fruition but it’s starting to pay off for them now.

“We thought a lot of her originally and then she got hurt but now she’s going very much in the right direction. Second-guessing Willie Mullins can be dangerous but I’d imagine she’d be heading to Fairyhouse for the Grade One mares’ novice hurdle there.”

Walsh is a rare visitor to Britain outside the major festival meetings since deciding to base himself at home in Ireland at the start of last season but he will be in action again at Ascot on Saturday, riding Mullins’Ballycasey in the Grade One Betfair Chase.

“It’s an open race,” Walsh said. “Ma Filleule was only touched off by Holywell at Cheltenham last year and that looks like good form. Paul [Nicholls’] horse Ptit Zig looks a very decent novice who’s going in the right direction.

“But, in fairness to Ballycasey, if he can run back to his Moriarty [Novice Chase] form last year, when he beat Don Cossack and Carlingford Lough, that’s good form.

“I was bitterly disappointed with him at Christmas,” said Walsh, recalling the grey’s seventh-place finish at Leopardstown, “but he was beaten so early it couldn’t be true. I could have pulled up going to the first, he never came alive. It was a terrible run but you have to give any horse one bad day.”