A FORMER jockey has been hailed as a “superhero” after saving a child from drowning.
George Chaloner, an ex-jockey who rode well over 200 winners on the Flat before his career was ended by injury at the age of 25 in 2017, was holidaying in Filey in North Yorkshire last weekend.
Ex-jockey George Chaloner has been labelled a hero after saving a child from drowningAction Images – Reuters
PA:Press AssociationChaloner recalled how a lifeguard programme he took when he was younger helped him[/caption]
But during the family holiday with his partner and kids, he witnessed a horrifying sight.
The 33-year-old spotted a youngster – described as being eight or nine years old – out at sea who had been swept out by the strong currents.
Chaloner swam out to sea to save them alongside another rescuer, recalling how the lad was “about to go under”.
He told RacingPost: “We went on holiday to Filey with the kids. We were at the end of Filey Bay, Reighton Sands, with the boys all day. We were just about ready to go and there were some shouts of ‘help’ from the sea.
“Everyone stopped and looked but no-one went down. After ten or 15 seconds, I went down with another tall lad. A woman at the side of the sea said ‘those kids are drowning, I can’t swim’.
“The kids were playing in the breakers but the tide had come in and pushed them into a pool and they’d got out of their depth. I couldn’t touch the floor there.
“There were two girls who were shouting ‘my brother, my brother!’ and pointing to a little lad about 15 or 20 feet away.
“He was eight or nine and when I got to him he was being pulled out by the rip tide, on his last legs and about to go under.
“I got him and swam him halfway back where someone had come out with a half-bodyboard and we got him on that and brought him back.”
The incident would not have been publicly known were it not for his partner, Daisy Jones, who shared a Facebook post and praise him as a “real-life superhero”.
However, humble Chaloner insisted he had not done anything extraordinary, saying of his “hero” label: “I don’t know about that.
“You just hope that if it was one of your kids, somebody else would do it for them.”
Chaloner, a graduate from the National Horseracing College, recalled how lifeguard training when he was young helped him cope in the strong currents, despite having not swum properly in years.
He added: “The kids were fine but they were jiggered and so was I.
“I’m not as fit as I used to be and I’d legged it from the top of the beach, swum out about 50 feet and brought the lad back in. I was ready for a cup of tea!
“It turned out two women we had seen were the kids’ mothers, but they were deaf and didn’t hear them shouting; they just saw them splashing about and didn’t know they were in trouble.”
Chaloner’s biggest win as a jockey came in the Wokingham Handicap and Northumberland Plate in 2014.
The retired jockey now works as a stud manager at Cliff Stud, and will be in York next week as he serves the horseman there.
He said: “I work closely with the vets and doctors and monitor the horses from the stableyard, to the pre-parade ring and so on and if there’s any bother I’m the first one on the scene.”
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