The life and death of a stable lad
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 14 July 2020
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Groomsman, Michael Curran, was acclaimed for his dedicated work with top horses but went into a spiral of decline that ended in his tragic suicide. What leads someone who reaches the top of their profession to take their own life?
Samaritans: 116 123 or jo@samaritans.org.
Guest:
David Walsh, Chief Sports Writer.
Host: David Aaronovitch.
Additional music: Scott Holmes, Komiku, Kai Engel and Jordan Powell (licensed under Creative Commons).
Clips used: Racing TV and Racing Welfare.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just over a month ago horse racing became the first major British sport to restart as the lockdown eased. |
| 0:11.0 | Great moments involving great horses. |
| 0:14.0 | The racehorse, the racehorse, Golden Horn triumphing in the 2015 Epsom Derby. The man who, day in, day out, looked after Golden Horn, was |
| 0:27.4 | the groom Michael Curran. Every time that horse is feeling a bit down, it's the stable lad who will be whispering in his ear trying |
| 0:34.5 | to get him back feeling better about himself. So the relationship is incredibly intense. |
| 0:40.0 | But in May 2020, the people of Newmarket learned of Michael's sudden death. |
| 0:45.0 | One of them was Sunday Times journalist David Walsh. |
| 0:49.0 | What I wanted to do was to say, here is a guy who ended his life by suicide. There were times |
| 0:59.3 | when his life was incredibly meaningful and rich and happy and didn't end well but you know what he |
| 1:06.3 | was around and he was loved he was loved he was respected yet Michael Curran died. |
| 1:14.0 | You're listening to stories of our times from the Times and the Sunday Times. |
| 1:18.0 | I'm David Aronovich. |
| 1:20.0 | Today, the death of a stable lad. During 2014 and 2015 Michael Curran was at the very top of his profession. |
| 1:46.0 | The horses he cared for had triumphed at some of the world's biggest races. |
| 1:51.0 | What Michael Curran did in those two seasons was the absolute summit for a person involved in caring for horses. |
| 2:01.0 | David Walsh is the chief sports writer for the Sunday Times. |
| 2:05.0 | If Michael Curran was a golfer, he would have won the Masters and the Open Championship in the same season. If he was a tennis player he would have won |
| 2:16.0 | Wimbledon and Roland Garris the French Open. If he was a Formula One driver. He would have won six Formula One Grand Prix. |
| 2:28.0 | Michael's career had really taken off when the up-and-coming trainer John Gosden assigned him to one of his prize horses. |
| 2:35.4 | In 2013, John Gosden had a really good two-year-old. The horse was called Kingman. |
| 2:42.4 | Kingman in 2014 has the most extraordinary season where he wins four group ones, he wins a classic in Ireland, he wins the St James's Palace stakes, which is for some people the single best race of Royal Ascot. the victory |
| 3:05.0 | of the year old for that season. |
... |
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