Nathan Rahman to ride in Royal Artillery Gold Cup two months after breaking back

Sandown will be wowed by another astonishing tale of military toughness and resilience when Corporal Nathan Rahman takes to the saddle on Friday.

For the last two years the Castel Royal Artillery Gold Cup has been won by the remarkable Guy Disney, who lost his right leg below the knee in Afghanistan's Helmand Province in 2009.

Now Rahman, a section commander with the First Battalion the Royal Welsh, is out to deny him the hat-trick on Cabragh – just two months after he broke his back in three places.

Guy Disney steers Rathlin Rose to back-to-back wins in the Royal Artillery Gold Cup In 2018Credit: Getty Images

He suffered the injury in a last-fence fall on a mare called Tangoed in a point-to-point at Clifton-on-Dunsmore in Warwickshire on December 16.

"It was my first fall in a race, unfortunately she didn't get her landing gear out," Rahman, 29, recalled on Thursday.

"I'd done the fall training at the British Racing School with Richard Perham – that kicked in and for a split-second I thought I'd got away with it. Then she ran all over me, I got trampled all over my back and that's where the damage was done.

"My background is in rugby and it felt like I'd been in a ruck or maul and had a knee in the back, but it was getting worse and worse and I couldn't feel my toes in my left foot – I was a bit nervous because of that."

An emergency CT scan at Coventry University Hospital revealed that he had fractured the wings of his L2, L3 and L4 vertebrae, bones that are surrounded by thick cartilage and damageable only by a direct blow.

But Rahman, a personal trainer who has been in the army for 11 years, spent just two nights in hospital and was quick to dispense with the prescribed painkillers that would have been a lifeline for most patients.

"I wanted to know that if I could touch my toes, I could do it with it no pain," he said. "With my background in personal training, I wanted to get myself back to where I wanted to be without it being masked – if I pushed myself too far, it was going to cause more damage.

"I had a lot of help from Oaksey House and they were very pleased my fitness was so high beforehand, so I was in a much better place than the majority of people.

"They gave me three weeks before I could start riding and I rode in my first point-to-point five weeks and six days after the fall."

Nathan Rahman made his point-to-point comeback less than four weeks after his fall

Rahman was seventh in the Royal Artillery Gold Cup on Sentimentaljourney last year, but the equine flu outbreak forced a late change of mounts in a race that is one of the highlights of the year for a military amateur rider.

"Unfortunately Sentimentaljourney, who gave me my first winner, is not running due to the flu vaccine rules," he said.

"I'm on Cabragh for Charlie Mann, which is a great honour as he's such an established trainer. Whether he has a chance depends on what horse turns up on the day – he's very capable, but things have to go his way. The ground will be to his liking and I'd like to think he should be in the mix."

Rahman hunted and showjumped as a child, but said: "I gave up riding for a number of years because of operational deployments, then my oldest daughter got into it and I wanted to be out with her so that got me back into it.

"I had a career-ending injury in rugby, I popped both shoulders out and it was a case of getting them pinned and risking playing again or not playing any more – but I've obviously taken up an equally dangerous sport!"

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Guy Disney interview: half a leg and a full quota of courage

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