by Mal Keaveney
SIGNS were encouraging earlier this week that talented Limerick jockey Wesley Joyce, who suffered a fall at the Galway Festival, is on the recovery path.
Joyce, a native of Moyross, was riding Red Heel for Michael Mulvany when he was unseated early in the EBF Corrib Fillies Stakes. He “sustained major trauma to his chest” and remains “stable” in the Intensive Care Unit of University Hospital Galway.
“This is a little bit of a setback for him but hopefully it’s onwards and upwards,” Mr Mulvany told the Racing Post. “You’d have to admire the wonderful job that all the medical teams at Galway Racecourse and University Hospital Galway have done. Hopefully, all that good work will play off for Wesley.”
Joyce’s Galway mount was the 19-year-old’s first in Listed company, as he returned to the scene of his biggest success. At last year’s festival he partnered the Emmet Mullins-trained Crowns Major to win a €100,000 Handicap. His first winner came only a few weeks earlier with 50/1 shot Hands Down at Sligo.
He has now ridden 20 winners having kicked-off his training career when he attended a Racing Academy and Centre of Education outreach programme in conjunction with the Moyross Youth Academy. Three of his six winners this season had arrived in the 12 days before his unseat.
Mulvany added: “He’s a lovely young man and has done everything I’ve ever asked of him. He’s a great worker who you could set your clock by every day. He’s very reliable and deserved all the luck and rides he was getting because he grafts hard. Everyone in the yard likes Wesley, he’s a good personality.
“He’s a very good pilot. Any time he’s been on a horse that should have a winning chance he doesn’t make many mistakes.”
Rachael Blackmore has been among the many riders to send good wishes to Joyce.
