Jody McGarvey: I owe Danny Mullins ‘a drink or two’ after race rescue

Jody McGarvey has been amazed by the publicity after he was pushed back on to a horse by fellow rider Danny Mullins at Roscommon on Monday.

The Irish jockey revealed that friends in Australia have even been in touch to say they have seen the incident, while a clip of the race has been viewed over 120,000 times on Twitter.

McGarvey was riding Old Supporter in the Roscommon On-Course Vets Handicap Chase when the horse made a bad blunder early in the contest.

Just when it looked like he was about to fall out of the side door, Mullins, riding Clondaw Dude, spotted McGarvey’s predicament and shoved him back into the saddle.

It did neither man any good as far as the result was concerned as both horses were pulled up.

“I’ve not seen anything like that before in any of the races I’ve been involved in,” said McGarvey.

“It was funny the way it happened to be fair, Danny had to think real quick.

“It could have all gone wrong as I wasn’t really aware what was happening. I was fighting a losing battle and then I felt Danny pushing me back on.

“The horse just launched himself at the fence, landed on it and fired me forwards, and when his head came back up it hit me in the face, knocking me out of the saddle.

“My saddle slipped and I had gone past the point of no return with a one-way ticket, I was preparing to hit the ground.

“I certainly owe Danny a drink or two.

“It’s amazing the publicity it has got. A few lads I know riding in Australia have even been in touch to say it has been on the news out there and the footage on Twitter has been viewed over 120,000 times, apparently.

“I’ve been getting a bit of stick from the lads, as you could imagine, but I’ll milk it while I can!”