Humphrey delight and Charing tragedy show two sides of racing

The highs and lows of racing were never more starkly shown than this past weekend when racing fans were reminded that Triumph and Disaster are two sides of the same coin. 

On Saturday, East Anglian trainer Sarah Humphrey enjoyed the biggest win of her career to date when Nickle Back, her exciting 8 year old novice brought hearts to mouths on TV and around Sandown Park when jumping with breath-taking accuracy and joie de vivre in a pillar-to-post 7l victory over 5 rivals in the Grade I Scilly Isles Chase. 

Leading from the off, the gelding put in some astonishing leaps that left the crowd, as well, I suspect, as his rider James Best, gasping. Best was effusive in his praise afterwards, and unashamedly delighted at securing a first Grade I success of his own - an attitude that brought fellow riders out on to the Weighing Room steps to cheer him in. 

Humphrey is likely to swerve Cheltenham with Nickle Back, although he has an entry in the Turners over 2m4f, and head for Aintree - yet another sign that the British fulcrum of influence is heading north to Liverpool when faced with the dominance of Ireland at Cheltenham.

But wherever there is racing, disappointment and tragedy are never far away. Hermes Allen, a well-fancied runner for champion trainer Paul Nicholls, fell badly and fatally at the last. 

To compound the Nicholls misery, tragedy stalked the amateur division of the sport on Sunday when Keagan Kirkby, a work rider for Nicholls, was fatally injured at Charing in Kent during the South East Hunts Club fixture, having been carried out through a wing in the concluding Restricted race.

It's been nearly 7 years since the last fatality in the sport when James McNeile was fatally injured at Larkhill.