Jack Kennedy suffered his fifth career leg break at Naas earlier this month after falling at the fourth hurdle riding Top Bandit, who sadly suffered fatal injuries.
This latest blow came at a terrible time for the Irish rider as he was in a great position to secure himself his first Irish jockeys’ championship with the youngster currently 14 winners ahead of reigning champion Paul Townend with 77 so far - and that lead was 20 at the time Kennedy suffered his injury.
Townend has scooped up the jockeys’ championship for the last four seasons, and his first came when he was 20 years old in the 2010-11 campaign. He did brilliantly to win a title so young but then he had to wait eight years for his second due to the continuing heroics of Davy Russell and Ruby Walsh.
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And both of these serial winners have backed Kennedy to come back stronger from his latest setback. Russell announced last week that he was coming out of retirement to cover Kennedy’s absence for trainer Gordon Elliott. There is no exact timeframe as to when the young rider will be ready to race again so Russell could end up being back in the saddle for the Cheltenham Festival.
The 43-year-old has praised Kennedy’s character and that he knows he will bounce back from this latest leg break.
Speaking to the Racing Post, he said: “Jack will be back – what's happened to him won't sink the ship. He is a phenomenal man. Like, he is only 23 but he is a man already.
Russell went on to share his own experience of suffering an injury in the hunt for his first jockey championship title 15 years ago, where a fall at Fairyhouse led to Walsh retaining his champion status - and Russell was five wins ahead at the time.
"I cried like a baby at Fairyhouse that day. Nobody knows it, but I did – there were tears running down my face. I still hadn't won a title, but I went on to win three."
The veteran jockey is clearly backing Kennedy to come back and become champion jockey and given that Kennedy has made successful returns from injury in the past, you’d find it hard to bet against him doing so. Of course it is concerning that at 23 he has suffered this particular injury five times. Kennedy cannot seem to catch a break on that front and this one will sting more than the others because he was in a commanding lead to dethrone Townend and claim his first maiden jockeys’ championship.
12-time champion jockey Walsh echoed those sentiments in believing Kennedy will come back stronger than before because he has proved that he can do it time and again.
He told the Irish Mirror: "He is 23 so he's lucky in that he has youth on his side. But he’s unlucky that he has had so many injuries so young.
"He's been riding competitively since he was 15 so he has eight years as a jockey and he has spent over two years on the sidelines.
"That’s a huge test of your mentality, how much you love your job, how much you want to do it.
"Coming back is probably the biggest test of all. Are they as confident? Are they as plucky? Jack has already proven that he can come back from injury and that’s a huge thing for jockeys."
