Cornelius Lysaght pays tribute to Liam Treadwell

I have been reading with tears in my eyes an interview I did with Liam Treadwell for the BBC Sport website in November 2016.

We were chatting in his car in the car-park at Kempton ahead of the re-launch of a career put on hold by the effects of a heavy fall sustained at Bangor-on-Dee the previous March.

Though back race-riding again quickly, he “wasn’t feeling myself” and had been absent since May dealing with ‘cumulative’ concussion.

I remember that it was absolutely pouring with rain that Monday morning, hence we stayed in the car, but Treadwell, then 30, said he couldn’t care less about the weather because he was so excited about continuing his career, and a broad smile, exposing his by then famously perfect teeth, told its own story.

But he did also speak candidly about the downs as well as the ups of life since the 2009 Grand National, the day his gnashers had become the most talked about in sport.

As regards that, there was much nonsense spouted about Clare Balding’s clearly good-natured teasing in response to Treadwell’s gap-toothed grin after winning on Mon Mome having caused offence – the BBC even put out a statement of apology – but the man himself always laughed about it – all the way to a free dental make-over.

In fact, during our Kempton interview, he spoke of how Balding’s words had aided the return to the saddle that day.

He said: “I was mentally not very well…I didn’t want to ride a horse as I felt so grim, so disillusioned.

“A sports psychologist encouraged me to watch the good days on TV – good times, successes, so Mon Mome and [2013 Cheltenham Festival winner] Carrickboy were two I watched, and seeing Clare’s comments about my teeth at Aintree definitely helped me to smile again.”

It is said that winning the world’s most famous horse race is a life changing moment, but Treadwell pointed more at the Bangor-on-Dee incident – or “big bang” as he put it with typical jump jockey nonchalance – as what had changed him.

But after the lengthy period of “doing nothing, giving the brain a chance to heal” he felt “fitter and stronger than I probably ever have been” and was keen to, perhaps ironically, encourage weighing-room colleagues to talk about potential mental health issues.

We kept in touch and only 15 months later he contacted me to say that he was now quitting because “since [the 2016 injury] I’ve found it difficult to cope with the pressures. There is no point battling on and being miserable”.

As it turned out, he did not retire for long, and actually had a highly successful link-up with trainer Alastair Ralph during the 2019/20 season, partnering his final winner in March.

Perhaps the demons seemed more at bay, but as with former jump jockey James Banks, a close friend of Treadwell found dead in February, it is so hard to be sure.

From grinning Grand National winner to this in 11 years: truly heart-breaking.