The 20 dread words confirming that Michael O’Sullivan’s short but significant life is over will have come as no shock to those familiar with the melancholy messaging when a jockey goes down hard nowadays.
We knew it was grave in the immediate aftermath of Michael’s heavy fall at Thurles when Andrew Coonan of the Irish Jockeys’ Association said: “It is very sombre. All the riders are upset, spanning right across to Michael’s colleagues that ride on the Flat.
“Everyone is pulling together as best they can,” he added. “But you can imagine there’s a lot of shock, a lot of upset.”
I never had the honour of meeting Michael but I know a man who did and Ruby Walsh’s recollection of an early encounter with him, taken…