THE talented 21-year Donagh jockey, Ryan Treacy is due out of hospital this week following surgery for injuries he sustained at a fall at the Galway Races last month.
Ryan is the leading jockey for Tipperary trainer, John P. Ryan, and two horses were involved in the fall at the second fence of The Galway Plate, one of them Ryan’s mount, ‘Foildubh’ which was quietly fancied by the Ryan stable.
Both horses were fatally injured and Ryan, pictured, came off worse of the two jockeys, sustaining shoulder and pelvic injuries for which he was operated on in Dublin’s Tallaght Hospital.
Speaking to the Herald on Monday, Ryan’s father, Sean was on his way home to Fermanagh after visiting his son.
“He’s not too bad. Hopefully, he may get out tomorrow (Tuesday) or the day after, home to home.
“He expects to be in a wheelchair for eight weeks and they’re teaching him everything up there but he is well able to sort things out himself.
“Later on, he will be doing a bit of physio in Enniskillen.”
Sean admitted that the past two weeks had gone hard on his son.
“He has certainly been through it this last fortnight, and he has really, really suffered yet, amazingly, all he talks about is getting back on a racehorse.”
Asked if he would encourage Ryan to give up racing, Sean said ‘no way’.
“People will think that I’m crazy, but I support him in what he wants to do.
“Like, when you talk to horse trainers, he’s a serious talent for riding horses and that’s what he wants to do, so you can only support him.
“The surgeons will tell you that jockeys are a rare breed and, speaking of the doctors, they’re extremely happy with him.
“The reason he’ll be in a wheelchair is that he can’t use crutches owing to his shoulder.”
Already, Ryan has notched up 25 winners at meetings from Fairyhouse to Punchestown, from Downpatrick to Thurles and from Necarne (2012) to Bellewstown.
At the Point to Point in Necarne in 2012, he was winner of the Bobby Donaldson Memorial Cup.
This year, following a long spell out injured, Ryan returned to the saddle to score a double at the Tramore meeting on 12th April, riding for the Ryan stable.
A colourful display of 22 of his winners adorns the wall of his grandfather’s, Pat Treacy’s pub, ‘The Corner House’, at main street, Lisnaskea.
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