2016 St Leger winning jockey, George Baker, will be heading to Doncaster Racecourse to showcase his new book 'Taking My Time'. Head over to the Exhibition Hall from 12:50 on Friday 14th September during the William Hill St Leger Festival.
TAKING MY TIME: MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY
by George Baker
“It was almost like he was drunk when he rang…but I could tell that the real George was in there somewhere.”
Guy Jewell (agent) in the days following his accident
When George Baker’s horse came down on the White Turf at St Moritz in February 2017, George was flying high. The previous September he’d won the St Leger, one of the British classic races on Harbour Law, and he was firmly established as one of the country’s top flat jockeys, popular amongst both peers and punters alike.
In a second, all of that changed as a serious head injury resulted a lengthy spell in hospitals and George having to fight new physical and mental battles to survive.
Taking My Time is his compelling autobiography written with the wit and wisdom that has come to characterise George. In it, he details his early life determined to make it as a flat jockey despite having the body of a man surely destined for another occupation. Plus the then daily rigmarole of tortuous battles with the scales and punishing his body, whilst at the same time needing to be at the top of his physical game to make it in the fiercely competitive world of flat racing.
But it is the accident chapters that will totally captivate the reader as the story is taken over by George’s wife, Nicola, who had to support George and his family through the nightmare that came to overtake their life. With extraordinary candour she details life by his side in the immediate days following his accident and the humorous as well as serious side of things as George’s brain started to function again – how he thought he was a German rapper, had periods of sex-pesting the nurses and had to have his phone confiscated because he couldn’t be trusted not to call everyone.
“I’m quite pleased with myself’ he said. I looked up your telephone number on google…I might get back in time to ride Questy in the race..”
(in one late night phone call to trainer Roger Charlton shortly after his accident)
'Taking My Time' will be available from 14th September at www.racingpost.com/shop and all good bookshops.
