Hero of the Hour – Jamie Osborne

Queen Mother’s favourite champion jockey turned trainer turns the ‘Valley of the Racehorse’ that is Lambourn alive with the sound of music and viral videos during COVID-19

Racehorse trainer Jamie Osborne’s website includes the amusing disclaimer: “Jamie is always keen to hear from new clients but please do not contact us if you are a bad loser, slow payer or looking for gambling information.” Now, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, he’s taken his humour online and it has gone viral.

When he came to realise that “part of [his] job isn’t there” because of the lockdown, Lambourn Valley, Berkshire based Osborne – whom describes himself as an “overrated jockey, underrated trainer [and] Spielberg wannabe” to his nigh on 40,000 followers on Twitter – began filming amusing skits with his staff and posting them to his social media accounts.

Amongst the “daft and unorthodox things” Osborne and his staff have filmed thus far are Riverdance style Irish dancing in the yard and jockeys singing Clean Bandit’s Rather Be and Randy Newman’s You’ve Got a Friend in Me to the horses and of this morale boosting exercise, speaking to The Telegraph on Saturday, he remarked:

“It’s been a good exercise in keeping up yard spirit. Even if we didn’t put them out on Twitter and just shared them around among ourselves. They see it, a few more wanted to be in them, and now everyone enjoys making them.”

“I have 30 staff turn up every day and the rewards that they normally get are not there, so the making of films… has created a lot of fun and also shows what great riders they are.”

We urge our readers to join the ranks of the 50,000 people viewing these uplifting videos each day. As Osborne himself previously told Horse Racing Planet: “[They’re perfect for people who] want to have a laugh… I am sure none of us expected to live through a scenario like this. Everybody has their own set of worries but if we can lighten the load in a small way then it’s kind of worthwhile.”

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