He thought of going to the offices of the Goffs sales company, for which he works as an agent, but realised he would not have time. He ran to his horsebox and turned on the radio. Five minutes later, as the runners headed down into the dip for the second time, he let out an almighty roar. The horses nearby shied away in fright.
At Galway, 100 miles away, Power’s son was scenting victory on Nearly A Moose. “Shay Barry was in the lead on the favourite Back On Top and he was travelling really well, but my lad was still running. I was concentrating on making sure he got over the last two fences and I was just praying that Shay would fall into a hole.”
What Robert Power meant was that he hoped the favourite would tire as he met the rising ground, and this is exactly what happened. “I looked over my shoulder as we went up the hill and I saw that we had gone three or four lengths clear. But it seemed to take an awful long time to get to the top and I thought I was never going to get there. As we straightened up I looked back again, we were still clear and soon I was waving my whip in triumph.”
At the horse show his father leapt out of the cab, exclaiming to everybody within earshot: “Memorable stuff. My dad always said that the one race he wanted to be involved in was the Galway Plate, and now there is a Power on the trophy. I would have been a jockey myself if the Man Above had not made me 6ft 2in and 12st 7lb.” Instead Power became a famous showjumper, sweeping all before him on horses such as Rockbarton, until one day in 1989 at a show a riderless horse galloped into him. Power did not see it coming and either a stirrup iron or one of the horse’s shoes — he never knew which — fractured his skull. He was unconscious for three weeks and was ill for a long time afterwards. He never rode again and his burgeoning training career had to be abandoned. The racehorses were sold, including Toby Tobias, who went on to finish a close second in the following year’s Cheltenham Gold Cup. His son’s memories of those days are hazy. “I was only seven but what I remember most is my mother being left to carry the can, and she was the one who got me and my sister going on our ponies because my father wasn’t able to.”
Like his father he wanted to be a jockey but he had inherited the family build and was convinced he would be too heavy. He was 17 and 5ft 10in when he left home to join showjumper Peter Charles in Essex to learn the trade. He made rapid progress and won a European silver medal riding for Ireland. His proud father went to watch him riding at the Horse Of The Year Show in Wembley where he himself had enjoyed so many memorable triumphs. However Power snr was surprised to find his son down in the dumps.
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“I wasn’t riding at dad’s level, the quality of my horses wasn’t good enough and I couldn’t see how I was going to get the financial back-up you need to make it pay. I wanted to try racing. My weight had stabilised and I wanted to come back and give it a go.”
It was the turn of Power jnr to be surprised. His father revealed that racing was in his blood. Con’s grandfather had bred the 1947 Grand National winner Caughoo, and his father had ridden point-to-point winners. If Robert wanted to be a jockey, that’s what he should do. He got a kick start when he won on his first ride over hurdles, beating Ruby Walsh in a photofinish. He intended to stay as an amateur but Walsh’s father advised otherwise.
“I said you will get nothing out of racing as an amateur, and I should know,” recalls Ted Walsh, one of the most successful amateur riders this country has ever seen. “Turn pro, and if you haven’t got anywhere in two years it means you are never going to get anywhere. If that happens, give it up and become a plumber.”
The two years are up in December. The country’s plumbers looked safe from further competition even before Power won the Midlands National at Uttoxeter in March. Wednesday’s Galway Plate win confirmed him as one of the best young prospects in racing.
Robert is a quieter and more reserved individual than his extrovert father, but he is one of the few to have successfully bridged the enormous gap that divides showjumping from racing. “The big difference between the two is speed,” he says, “but where they are similar is that you have to present a horse at a fence properly to give him every chance to jump it. I reckon showjumping helped me a lot with that.
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“The risk of injury is much greater in racing and as a result you have a shorter career. You are doing well if you keep going until you are 35. You have to hope that your bottle stays intact that long, and much depends on your injuries.”
Another difference is the amount of food he eats. As a showjumper Power had a hearty appetite and often ate two breakfasts a day. Now he does not even have one and his first ‘meal’ of the day is a little bit of salad, or a small sandwich, at lunchtime. He eats nothing else until supper, which is meat and vegetables but not potatoes. Gravy and sauces are also banned. Instead he drinks the best part of a gallon of water each day.
He also knows that he has some way to go before he is in the sort of demand that sets the very top jockeys apart from the rest, and the day after his Galway Plate win he did not have a single mount. “I’m lucky to be riding for two good trainers in Paddy Mullins and Jessica Harrington,” he acknowledges. “But when they don’t have a runner in a race, I sometimes find it difficult to get a ride. Hopefully winning the Plate will help me do so.”
It has certainly helped to put him on the map, and it has enabled his father to live the dream that weight and height deprived him of.