Gale blows into Ludlow one week after a hard-won success to get off the mark

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When you see a young jockey achieving their first success, the temptation is to envy them for being so young and at the outset of their career. But in some cases, they may feel as though they struggled half a lifetime just to get to that point; so it was, anyway, with Elizabeth Gale, who scored on Langley Hundred at Exeter last Monday and will try to repeat the feat on the same horse at Ludlow today.

"It was just unbelievable, very thrilling," Gale tells the Front Runner. But her joy was hard-won. She started competitive riding in pony races a dozen years ago, since when she has also served her time in point to points. Though she learned plenty from both spheres, no winning opportunity fell her way.

Then, while riding in a point near Taunton in April last year, she broke her back as well as an orbital bone beneath one eye. A witness told me her mount completely failed to take off at the second fence and Gale was fired into the ground, so it's hardly surprising that damage resulted.

She fractured two vertebrae and one of the fractures was initially unstable. Rods were inserted on either side of her spine and she was confined to her home for weeks before she was even able to begin the rehabbing process.

It was a rotten thing to happen to a teenager but Gale was remarkably phlegmatic. Recalling how she found herself unable to move on the landing side of that fence, she said: "I'm quite a laid back person, so I just kind of accepted it, to be honest."

There followed months of rebuilding at the Injured Jockeys Fund's Jack Berry House in Malton, which might have seemed a chore to some. "I loved it, to be fair," Gale told me.

"It sounds bad but, because it was summer and I only had a point to point licence at the time, I wasn't missing out on anything. It was nice weather and I'm quite sociable, I like meeting new people. It was very enjoyable to be honest. Frustrating but enjoyable.

"I've been very lucky. There hasn't been much pain for me."

Gale was back at work by the end of last year and took her first ride as a professional jockey in March. Her win last week came on just her third ride and delighted the owners of Langley Hundred, previously a maiden, who responded to the jockey's urgings to score by a short-head.

"He jumped really well, travelled really well, everything just went smoothly for him," Gale reports. "He's come back bouncing," she adds, which augurs well for today's race, in which he gets to compete from the same rating.

"Ludlow is a bit sharper but if he jumps as well as he did the last day, it'll be fine. I was taking pulls out of him after every hurdle."

The timing of that win was highly fortuitous, two days before the jockey's 21st birthday. Her mum, aunt and sister had all travelled down to Minehead, where she works for Philip Hobbs, to mark the occasion. It was pure luck that she happened to have a ride at all that week, so they went to Exeter to cheer for her and ended up having a high old time.

"We didn't leave the pub for two days," is how Gale puts it. Details of what actually went on are apparently a bit sketchy.

Does her back give her any trouble these days? "It's winter and most old injuries start to seize up when it gets cold but I don't have any major issues with it. I get physio at Oaksey House now and then when it is getting sore. I just keep on top of it. It doesn't seem to give me too many problems, thankfully.

"It's been such a long journey, a journey that's probably made me the jockey that I was on Monday. Hopefully, there'll be some more."

Monday's picks

Having gone 1/24 in October, Jane Williams has had four winners in the past fortnight, three of which have come from her last five runners. The Devon trainer has Le Cameleon (2.20) in the 2m4f handicap chase at Kempton and, though he's taken time to warm up to fences, he's easy to like at 4-1.

He was, in fact, that single winner for the yard last month, when keeping on pluckily to score at Warwick. The runner-up was a favourite from the hot, hot Ben Pauling yard which won the time before and has won again since. Aged seven, Le Cameleon has more to offer from a 5lb higher mark.

Chris Gordon has been flying along and this might be the time to catch Martha Willow (3.15), who seemed to need the run when making her debut for the yard at Halloween, her first outing since March.

Twice a bumper winner, she showed promise in novice company last term. She ought to be capable of going close off this rating as she tries a handicap for just the third time and odds of 16-1 underestimate her.

Richard Birch tells of a win to get form students salivating...

Three things to look out for today . . .

1. Sam Thomas has an interesting hurdling debutant in Dai Walters' colours in the opener at Kempton. Just Over Land, an unraced three-year-old bought in France last year, is a brother to Good Risk At All, winner of four races for the same connections, including a Carlisle handicap hurdle last month in which he beat Wholestone from a mark of 137. Another sibling is Earlofthecotstwolds, whose 11 wins include five over hurdles.

2. You don't get many hurdling recruits who achieved more on the Flat than Brentford Hope, a runner in Ludlow's opener. He reached a rating of 107 when running in the Darley Stakes at the end of last year, was placed in a Group 2 in Italy and in two Group 3s in France. Jamie Spencer often rode him and Brentford Hope sometimes allowed the jockey to appear at his most Spencery, motionless in the final furlong as others pumped away. Daryl Jacob is booked today and if everything goes well, perhaps we'll see a kind of Spencer tribute act. Surprisingly, Richard Hughes hasn't trained a jumps winner; whether it's today or another day, Brentford Hope could be the horse to change that.

3.Molly Ollys Wishes has another good winning chance near the end of Kempton's card, when she lines up against two rivals in a Listed hurdle race for mares. Dan Skelton's veteran will mean a bit more to regular readers of the Front Runner after she featured in this space a fortnight ago, when we discussed the charity she represents. Molly Ollys supports children with life-threatening illnesses and their families, to help with their emotional wellbeing. You can read more about it here.

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The Front Runner is our latest email newsletter available exclusively to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers. Chris Cook, a four-time Racing Reporter of the Year award winner, provides his take on the day's biggest stories and tips for the upcoming racing every morning from Monday to Friday. Not a Members' Club Ultimate subscriber? Click here to join today and also receive our Ultimate Daily emails plus our full range of fantastic website and newspaper content