Unpublished: Bryan Cooper thinks about his career, injuries and battles with Paddy Brennan | Racing news

In the last episode of an unrestrained Podcasta, a former Gold Cup who won the Jokej Bryan Cooper thinks about the highlights and downs of his career, fighting Paddy Brennan and his departure from the weighing room.

“I fell in love with that in 2013 when things didn’t go well, but I was fortunate to have returned to a very good level, riding for big coaches with the second winner of the festival.

“I was driving in all the big races, although not the first wires, but I was still collecting very good spare parts. To be honestly honest, I lost the bottle.”

He added, “The injuries took their toll and I didn’t enjoy riding a horse, I worried I would fail and hurt again. I couldn’t get out of bed, racing and thinking about it.

“I did it for so long and it’s like anyone who has a gambling addiction or a drink – you can only put it in the end as everything collapses and unfortunately collapsed in the morning Cheltenham.”

Cooper retired after the Cheltenham 2023 festival, deciding not to drive the drive on the second day of the Cotswolds exhibition. He took off his boots at the age of 30 with 39 class winners in his name, including nine at Cheltenham Festival.

The driver since 2008, Cooper really arrived on stage in the 2010/11 season, when he won the title of Irish Championship Championship Jockeys. His first grade followed the season later, on Benefficent at Deloitte’s obstacle for Novak in Leopardstown. In March 2013, his three winners at Cheltenham’s festival really set up its name in the lights, before he succeeded in a fifth placement on board a rare bob in Grand National.

After returning from a broken Bedre, he was appointed stable Joker Gordon Elliott in January 2014, replacing Davy Russell on most leading horses in Gigginstown and Britain and Ireland after that.

At these meetings, Cooper did not become a stranger in battles with an unrestrained co -organizer Paddy Brennan – a quarrel that would later reach the head in the chase for King George VI 2015 in Kempton.

Fire rivalry with Brennan

Cooper remembers, “There was a lot of beef. We shared the same valelet, Bagsy, and I was probably the only other Irishman with Bagsy. I was always burning next to Paddy in Cheltenham. I was quite young but turned. I came. I never saw anyone as a revolver. “

He added, “I guess I was a little calm and relaxed and maybe it wound him and I needed to respect him a little better. We had my stabs and going on the trail, gathered me several times on Rail and I brought him back several times – that lasted for years. “

In defense, Brennan said, “I suppose in his position, when a guy would walk with a shot in the weighing room, I would think,” I’ll put the manners on this guy. “

King George of 2015 Brennan’s Cue Card is facing a big Don Cossack – Cooper’s Mount.

Brennan said, “Everything we missed were Hurls that day. From the moment we jumped, he was a little inside and went out. I went through with a circle to go and I pulled Don Cossack, and he started screaming like a a baby on my inner. “

Inserting himself, Cooper said, “And he scored me, he absolutely scored me. I walked back the path and Paddy dropped it on the Parade Cue card. If I had an experiment, I would have run and demolished it with a horse, I was so thick [with anger]. “

Cooper would eventually laugh, riding Don Cossack to fame in the renovation of Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2016 after Brennan suffered a fall on the Cue card in the house.

Asked if the best horse really beat host Matt Chapman, Cooper insisted: “Yes, honestly to God. I didn’t even give him a slap behind the saddle, and you don’t win such a golden cup. So I went, even on the fourth last, took Three himself out of him, put him in pop and he nodded to the back.

“I had so many horses. I headed straight to Mokin and I kept because in the middle a fresh stain of the ground appeared three from the railway, and my head appeared in the middle. Half went down the hill with me.”

Injury and retirement

During his career, Cooper was not a stranger to the table for treatment, and he suffered a lot of injuries, including a broken pelvis and a lung crashed.

Remembering falling in Cheltenham who saw him breaking his leg, Cooper remembers, “It was scary. First I went to Gloucester for surgery, and then they sent me to Bristol. I should have had my own room, but not and not and the guy He went down to the same surgery before me, and he lost your leg.

“Fortunately I didn’t come back with that, but it was extremely difficult. I considered rehabilitation hard but pleasant, but I can’t run at all, which is very frustrating.”

Frequent battles with injuries that sewed the seeds of doubt about Cooper, who says he would often wake up and does not want to go racing.

“I managed to put it in the bay when I arrived at the races for a certain period of time, but it was just getting worse – I suppose that when you fall, you get up and say,” No, I don’t do this anymore, it rarely got into my head.

“From a very minute of declarations came out until I got in the car to get home, I was afraid of the races. I liked I was in a weighing room and I had a craic with guys but I didn’t want to go out with them. I did it. For a while, but the reason I was open – I could go out with the story of how I don’t get the opportunity – but there is no point in lying.

Referring to his decision to withdraw from the saddle, Cooper said: “I am very pleased, it will pass for two years in March and I have never been happy in my life. I still struggle to find that part of the excitement as you get – as Paddy knows – walking to Cheltenham as a winner or walking down the groove – that’s a bit irreplaceable.

“I’m driving at home whenever I’m down, I have a lot of young stocks. The apartment, jumps, everything I can do a few quid, I’ll knock them down at home. It’s pretty hard to buy a property in Ireland.

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