Harry Coffey

  Hope owners had a bit on and give him a nice kick.

Lovely ride but she wasn't quite good enough.

Riding in Adelaide race 2 and then making a mad dash to Melbourne for the Oakleigh Plate

Offsett Approaching the 400m was tightened and clipped the heels of Darkside and as a result knuckled and fell dislodging its rider H Coffey. A subsequent veterinary examination revealed the colt was suffering from muscle soreness. A sable representative for trainer D Weir was notified that a veterinary clearance will be required before the horse is accepted to race again. Rider H Coffey was examined by the RV Medical staff and was deemed unfit to fulfil his remaining riding engagements due to mild soreness in his neck.


J Rule rider of Darkside pleaded guilty to a charge careless riding under the provisions of AR137(a). The careless riding being that when he rode Darkside near the 400m he permitted his mount to shift out to improve when not sufficiently clear of Offsett who was then initially tightened for room between Darkside and Desert Rain (NZ) before clipping the heels of Darkside falling and dislodging its rider H Coffey. J Rules licence to ride in races was suspended to commence midnight 5th January 2018 to expire midnight 28th January 2019 a total of twenty five meetings (8 metro/17 provincial). In arriving at this penalty Stewards took into account J Rules guilty plea, good record and that this incident resulted in Offsett clipping heels falling and dislodging its rider.

The news hit Harry Coffey right between the eyes.

The rising jockey, who battles cystic fibrosis, was told by his specialist that riding and going to the races was totally off the table given the Coronavirus pandemic

For Coffey, who sits at the top of the Victorian country premiership, the decision was made then and there. Despite flying on the track, putting his own life at risk by contracting the virus was definitely not worth it.

“At the beginning of the week, I was a little bit like everyone, naive, thinking it would be all right and we will just keep going until it shuts down,” Coffey said.

“But after having a chat to my specialist in Melbourne, because I’m high risk, if I was to get it then it could be a little bit more serious than what it would be for most.

“So it’s not worth me mixing with people at this point in time. The jockeys’ room and racing meetings is somewhere where people from all over Victoria are going to meet at once.

“So not only am I high risk, but that is a high-risk environment for what could spread it.”

While not in full self-isolation, Coffey is wary of where he goes. But he still has some time to drop into the Coffey Racing Stables at Swan Hill.

“Fortunately enough, I just have to use common sense. I’m not allowed to go to the supermarket,” he said.

“I haven’t been told to self-isolate, I’ve just got to be smart with what I do. If the situation worsens across the state (then I’ll) self-isolate.

“I’ve still been mixing with family and friends. I’m still visiting the stables to see dad and the staff because I’m pretty heavily involved with dad’s stable.

“But we’ve told our staff that if someone feels the slightest little bit ill not to come to work and I’ll step away as well.”

Coffey, who has ridden 71 winners in country Victoria this season, admitted being told to stop riding was “pretty disappointing” news to receive.

“(The doctor) said it’s probably not going to be a couple of weeks, it’s going to be a while,” he said.

“You initially think, ‘what am I going to do with myself?’ because I usually go to the races nearly every day. And then you think, ‘oh, gee, I’m having a good run and how am I going to end up with the stables I ride for and the opportunities? And also the premiership’.

“And then the financial income weighs on your mind as well.

“But when my doctor was explaining it to me, he said ‘to put it plain and simple, that it’s only getting worse before it gets better and we need to get a step ahead of everyone and this is what we are going to do’.”

See Harry hasn't ridden since 15 March.

Silly me.  That's what happens when you only open up the first page of the thread.