True Colours: an unfiltered tale of racing icon Barry Geraghty

True Colours by Barry Geraghty (with Niall Kelly)
Hardback published by Gill Books, €22.99

Five words in the prologue sum up the life of a jump jockey: that’s how it should happen. But things can never go completely to plan.

The tale of Barry Geraghty’s illustrious career is no different. The highs came with lows, ecstasy was followed by agony, often in the form of broken bones. His career was anything but predictable.

True Colours recounts his exploits in the saddle before his retirement in July but before Geraghty recalls his fondest memories, the reader is taken to one of his worst in last year’s Topham Chase at Aintree.

Geraghty sits up after an ‘easy’ fall but when he looks down he sees his leg has been bent two inches inwards above the ankle. It’s a bad one and for the first time he doubts whether he’ll be able to return.

This refreshing honesty so early in the book from someone who has broken nearly every bone in his body and has had more than 70 stitches in his face is an important reminder that jockeys are not robotic – they possess the human element of worry like everybody else.

His family’s interest in racing goes back to his grandfather breeding Golden Miller, and life changed for Barry when his father decided not to move to America and instead turned their yard into a riding school. If it was not for unpredictability, his career would have been very different.

After using an old wooden Equicizer – Iliad – and riding on the pony circuit, Geraghty got his first taste of ‘that Moscow Flyer fella’ by slamming him on the ground in a schooling hurdle. Another unpredictable twist but the rest, as they say, is history.

There is a humorous tale about Geraghty's first sit on Moscow Flyer before their great conquests

This compelling read touches on themes of irony and chance. As the anecdotes roll off Geraghty’s tongue, it feels like you are right there with him for Moscow Flyer’s generation-defining victories, Monty’s Pass’s Grand National glory (with insight into the parties too), and the breathtaking feeling of partnering the one and only Sprinter Sacre.

The reader is treated to insight away from the track too. You are left to wonder how a losing ride secured him the top job with Nicky Henderson, and you find out about the jockeys’ nights out in Dublin, followed by the nervousness of getting to a meeting the next day.

Some books are riddled with cliches as they ride the usual rollercoaster of emotions, but the tweaking of the chronology in this autobiography produces a perfect blend. Geraghty never shies away and no stone is left unturned.

He touches on the how the deaths of John Thomas McNamara and Kieran Kelly affected him, his serious injuries and a day at Punchestown when JP McManus was prepared to sack him.

True Colours is a frank, unfiltered tale of a racing icon. After reading the book, you appreciate the lengths Geraghty went to in his pursuit of success. Readers are given incredible access to his life and it is a must-read about a career which never dropped out of top gear.

Read more Sunday reviews:

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'I'll bloody show them' – inspirational tale of the jockey who defied paralysis

Frankel: an imaginating retelling of the legendary story

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