October
AprilThurgood 34 years on
As Elvis "Ricky" Thurgood left for Caulfield races on Easter Saturday in 1980, life couldn’t have been better for the 21-year-old.
He had just completed a successful apprenticeship with the leading Caulfield stable of Angus Armanasco. He had ridden 58 winners in a career spanning five years.
Tragically, Easter Saturday at Caulfield 34 years ago would leave Ricky facing certain death.
Ricky suffered every jockey’s worst nightmare when Taras Regent collapsed and died on the home turn in the Easter Cup. It was a fall without the slightest warning in a big field.
Later that day at the Alfred Hospital, his parents, Noel and Doris, his brother Derek and sister Debbie were told that their son and brother was not expected to survive the night.
Not only did Ricky survive the night, but he survived the next day, the next week and the next month.
In the best of faith, doctors told Noel and Doris that Ricky’s life expectancy would not exceed one year.
Today, 34 years later, Ricky is still being cared for by Noel and Doris at their home in Caulfield.
His survival meant the start of a lifetime of commitment by his parents. These two extraordinary people are a unique example of love, care and attention that has been unconditional, without boundaries and unending.
Ricky’s injuries were genuinely catastrophic. A massive brain injury has left him unable to communicate at all. Physically, Ricky is a complete quadriplegic who requires 24/7 care every day of his life.
In Ricky Thurgood’s case, the greatest of all privileges associated with my job is that I have got to know him and his parents well. I’m proud to say that Noel and Doris, along with Derek and Debbie, are close friends.
It is impossible to understand the grief experienced by the families of Victorian riders who have paid the ultimate price. The emptiness felt by the families of Andrew Gilbert, Mark Goring, Adrian Ledger and Gavin Lisk is impossible to describe. The incredible sense of loss felt by the families of Ben Smith, Harry Hillier and Adrian Lechmere lost at such a young age in tragic circumstances can’t be understood. The challenges faced so bravely by Lonagan Milham, Brenton Primmer, David Taggart, Danny Brereton, Billy Hernan, Louise Cooper and so many other injured riders is what makes jockeys unique.
Each situation is different, heart-breaking and challenging… but to the families of riders we have lost and to those riders who have suffered life-changing, career-ending injuries, the industry does remember you.
To Noel and Doris Thurgood, please pass on to Ricky that the racing industry remembers him this Easter, 34 years on.
(The Thurgood family sincerely thanks the Melbourne Racing Club for remembering Ricky by allocating a race on Easter Monday, the Ricky Thurgood 34th Anniversary Plate.)
Victorian Jockeys Association