‘I was done, I didn’t care if I rode again’ - Keith Donoghue tells Patrick Mullins how he came back from the brink

“Keith Donoghue sat down in Paul Carberry’s house to watch the opening race of the Cheltenham Festival . . . He had an uneasy feeling. He had been telling anyone willing to listen to him that Labaik would win the Supreme . . . By now Labaik was well known to the racing public as a bit of a rogue. He refused to race three times already in the season . . . Donoghue had done most of the work with him in the lead-up. He rode him most mornings, he brought him hunting, he used all the tricks he’d learned from Carberry . . . Labaik was his ride at Cheltenham. 

“However, while Donoghue was helping Labaik’s state of mind, he was going through a struggle of his own . . . He stands at over 6ft tall and so the battle with the scales can get very rough. On this occasion it got too rough . . . [He rode] in Naas in mid-February but not long after decided he had to take a break. The day-to-day physical struggle had become a mental struggle. It was unsustainable. 

Labaik jumps the last in the SupremeCredit: John Grossick Racing Photography

“Labaik jumped off fine . . . He watched him make ground on the outside for Jack Kennedy down the hill. Watched him cruise to the front on the turn in. And he watched him power away from Melon on the run-in . . .