Robbie McNamara knows the road ahead for paralysed Freddy Tylicki and offers inspirational advice: 'Aim big and don't accept pity'

  • Freddy Tylicki was paralysed from the waist down after a horrific fall at Kempton
  • Ex-jockey Robbie McNamara was also left paralysed by a fall in April 2015
  • After recovering to make a successful start as a trainer, McNamara has advised the stricken Tylicki not to let his others feel sorry for him 

If flat jockey Freddy Tylicki needs a source of inspiration in the difficult months ahead, his search need go no further than Robbie McNamara.

Tylicki's rehabilitation from the Kempton fall five weeks ago which left him paralysed from the waist down is just starting. No-one can honestly know what thoughts will swirl around his head.

But McNamara, 28, will get closer than most. The Wexford fall in April 2015 cost him much, much more than the ride on Lord Windermere in the Grand National 24 hours later.

 Robbie McNamara's riding career was ended by a fall last year but he's now become a trainer

 Robbie McNamara's riding career was ended by a fall last year but he's now become a trainer

Freddy Tylicki has just started rehabilitation after a fall left him paralysed  from the waist down

Freddy Tylicki has just started rehabilitation after a fall left him paralysed  from the waist down

It also condemned a talented sportsman who had defied his 6ft 3in frame – he played second row in rugby - to become a jump jockey to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair.


But woe betide anyone who feels sorry for McNamara, who rode two winners at the 2014 Cheltenham Festival when still an amateur rider.

His transformation to trainer running a stable of almost 40 horses alongside Curragh was far from smooth but he neither seeks nor wants sympathy. In fact, he loathes it.

He has already contacted Tylicki offering support but acknowledges each person's choices are different.

McNamara has offered Tylicki his support but says the 30-year-old has to handle it his way

McNamara has offered Tylicki his support but says the 30-year-old has to handle it his way

He and cousin John Thomas, who was left paralysed after a fall at the 2013 Cheltenham Festival and died in July, never spoke to each other about their injuries.

McNamara said: 'I sent (Freddy) a message if he wanted to talk. But you can give as much advice as you want, you ultimately have to handle it on your own.

'Freddy tweeted that he was struggling but fighting. He was hurting but, at the same time, looking forward. It was a good tweet and for a short tweet there was a lot of meaning in it. He'll be alright. He is a tough fella with a great family around him.'

McNamara has also spoken to Tylicki's sister and fellow Curragh trainer Madeleine.

He said: 'Madeleine did the trainer's course with me. I have just offered help and she liked to talk for her own peace of mind. It is obviously not easy on her either.'

McNamara believes it is a positive that Tylicki has been told of his situation so soon rather than, like him, painfully throwing hope at a lost cause.

He added: 'Freddy has got a definitive answer. The thing that annoyed me was I kind of accepted (my situation) after two or three weeks but people around me were saying it might be spinal shock which put me off for another four or five weeks.

After the Kempton fall McNamara says it's a positive that Tylicki's already been dealt his hand

After the Kempton fall McNamara says it's a positive that Tylicki's already been dealt his hand

'I was wishing and hoping all day. You can be positive your legs will work again but it is false hope. Being realistic about the whole thing helped me.

'It will be a big help to Freddy that he has been dealt his hand. He has to get on with it.'

It may be part defence mechanism but McNamara can now unbelievably even place a positive spin on his situation – 'It has done me a favour' - in that it gave him greater publicity when he began training.

Any doubts McNamara has the knack was instantly dispelled when he trained two winners – Chadic and Rathcannon – and a second from his first four runners at Cork in July.

It is more impressive when McNamara, whose brother Andrew also trains, tells you he had planned the instant impact. The results also helped change how people spoke to him.

'I hate getting pitied, going racing and people say "It's great to see you." I am probably making more money than them, am happier than them, drive a better car and live in a nicer house. They were taking pity on me and it drove me mad.

'That was why I was so adamant to have winners on the first day. After Cork, it was positive, the pity thing stopped and it was about training. That's why I aimed for it to be big.'

McNamara is also thinking big. His stable is full of young equine talent for both Flat and Jumps and he is not just here to make up the numbers.

When McNamara, whose father Andrew snr trained 1985 Arkle Challenge Trophy winner Boreen Prince, talks of 'wanting to be better' than his old boss Dermot Weld, one of Ireland's greatest trainers, it is not arrogance but determination and belief.

He has Ireland's twin jump giants, Gordon Elliott and Willie Mullins, in his sights too.

Plans hatched and honed during his rehabilitation embrace the latest science and moulding it with McNamara's intuitive feel for a racehorse and the way it thinks..

He is itching to unleash his young Bumper horses next year and planning a run at Aintree's Grand National meeting for Rathcannon, who runs in the colours of Michael Worcester owner of 1997 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Mr Mulligan.

Before his accident, McNamara was a crack three handicap golfer who once shot four under par in a Pro-Am to beat Irish professional Shane Lowry by a shot.

He concedes he will not shoot as low again but McNamara has found a way of also getting back on the golf course.

Life is not how McNamara planned it but he now has a different plan. You'd be a fool to bet against it succeeding.