'They saved his life' - winning Ripon owner recovering after heart attack

Triumph almost turned to tragedy for owner Neil Buckman, who came close to death just seconds after winning a race at Ripon.

It was only the swift intervention of on-course medical staff that saved the pensioner from Cheltenham after the success of Shouldvebeenaring last Sunday.

The two-year-old carries the colours of Middleham Park Racing, the syndicate group that Buckman became part of just six weeks ago.

He won a 6f novice event and Tim Palin, director of racing at the company, said: "Neil was understandably very excited.

"He ran out onto the track to greet the horse, celebrate with the jockey and help walk it in. You see it all the time but then he keeled over with a heart attack and we thought we'd lost him.

Tim Palin: 'Ripon were brilliant in everything, including looking after his car in the car park'Credit: David Carr

"Fortunately the doctors and paramedics were walking across the track themselves and they were just yards away. They saved his life."

Racing was delayed while Buckman was treated and Palin said: "There was a tricky 20 minutes when they had to resuscitate him and they brought him back.

"The lucky thing is that he couldn't possibly have been in a better place, there were two ambulances and loads of medical staff.

"He was whisked off to James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough and he's calm and relaxed there now. He's probably going to need a triple heart bypass but he's in good spirits."

Palin was full of praise for the medical staff and for the course itself.

"Ripon were brilliant in everything, including looking after his car in the car park," he said.

"Neil has only been with us since April 1 – we do an April Fool's day promotion in which people can make us a foolish offer and he bought into five horses.

"We've arranged for him to have the trophy and a lot of people have been asking after him, especially because racing had to be delayed 20 minutes – he is blissfully unaware that the whole of racing is concerned for him!"

Reflecting on the frightening incident, Ripon managing director James Hutchinson said: "The team worked extremely hard, they were on it in an instant as they saw the guy had gone down.

"They did a tremendous job. It's part of our role to look after and care for all racegoers. His car is sitting in our car park and we'll keep an eye on it and make sure it's okay.

"We managed to catch up the lost time by the last race, the ones in between were delayed a bit but saving a life must come first."

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