Usually, at this time of year, experienced jockey Aidan Coleman would be preparing to race at the Cheltenham Festival.
But things have changed drastically for the four-time winner at the iconic event, with a life-changing injury forcing him into an early retirement.
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Coleman announced that he would be ending his horse-racing career in April 2024, putting a stop to an incredible 17 years in the sport.
He rode the legendary Paisley Park to an incredible Stayers Hurdle victory at Cheltenham in 2019 while also winning twice at the festival in the saddle of Put the Kettle On.
The 36-year-old was also a regular jockey for trainer JP McManus’ stars Jonbon and Epatante before disaster struck.
When in the prime years of his career, Coleman suffered a horrific injury that would ultimately force him to call time on his racing days.
Reliving the terrible incident that occurred in 2023, he told talkSPORT.com: “It was at Worcester – pretty insignificant, small summer Novice Hurdle, bad race, not good quality horses.
“The horse [Ascension Day] was going to win until he ran out at the last and I hit a rail with my knee at around 30mph, so you can imagine…
“The rail end didn’t give way either, so people say, ‘Well it’s good that these things are plastic’, well usually it is.
“But I may well have just hit a concrete rail the way it was positioned.”
On the impact to his leg, Coleman added: “I knew it was pretty bad because I looked down and saw the angle my leg was facing and thought – ‘Well that’s not good.’
“It was, it was…” he hesitated as he thought back to the horrific collision two years ago.
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“Put it this way, I’ve always said if there was a fella walking around with a chainsaw, I’d have paid him good money to have just cut it off at the time.
“But now I’m happy someone didn’t do that, mind!”
He continued: “I did everything in my knee; the list of things I did is really long.
“What really finished me was, you’ve got your femur and your tibia, and they join together with the ligaments – I smashed all the top of my tibia.”
Coleman would be forced to spend two weeks in hospital after the crash as well as another four months of not being able to put any weight at all on his right leg.
Along with that tough recovery, he had to wear a knee brace for four months, as well as going through five days a week of long rehabilitation.
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He described the experience as ‘excruciating’, but after managing to bounce back well, he tries to look at the positives of the career-ending experience.
“If I didn’t give everything to my rehab, I’d probably be walking with a cane,” Coleman admitted. “Or I’d have some sort of disability with it.
“I’m actually well-functioning at the minute. I can still ride out a bit, it still hurts a bit at times and I still have to work on the muscles a bit but my normal life has no problem at all.
“There has been no repercussions in that respect. But being a jockey is pretty demanding and this wouldn’t have held up to those demands.
“I’ve had four operations I think, and it’s almost a certainty that I’ll need a knee replacement at some stage but the way I look at it is everyone might need one at some stage, you just don’t know it yet.
“I’m pretty sure I’ll need one, but hopefully not for a while.”
Coleman has been retired for almost a full year now, and there’s no doubt that seeing the races at Cheltenham will be tough for him.
And ahead of the festival, he reflected on his time so far as an ex-jockey after being told about the ‘difficult’ decision to end his career.
“It’s been different, difficult, a bit of everything really,” Coleman said about his retirement.
“This time last year, even though I hadn’t retired, I knew that I was struggling. But I wasn’t done just yet, there was a couple of things that might have worked out.
“It wasn’t the greatest time when I was told that I had to retire, but at the same time it was like reality hitting in, even though it was somewhat expected.
“It’s been tough, but it’s fine, I could be worse and you have to keep perspective.”
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