RIP Harry

[NoChanceToDance]

Really sad news.

He was a promising jockey and a nice guy. I did not know him really, but many of my friends knew him and some knew him well from the Point to Point scene. Couldn't quite believe it when I heard.

* * *

From Racing Post.....

Point-to-point rider Dowty found dead at 22

by Graham Green
.
THE Cotswolds racing and point to-point communities have been left stunned by what appears to have been the second suicide of a talented young local rider in less than two years.

Harry Dowty, 22, who at one time had aspirations of becoming a professional jockey, was found dead in a house in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, on Monday. There were no suspicious circumstances and he is believed to have taken his own life.

Anna De Lisle Wells, 23, a former novice point-to-point champion and good friend of Dowty's, hanged herself days before she was due to ride at the 2006 Cheltenham Festival.

Dowty, from Withington, near Cheltenham, and in the third year of a degree course in property at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester, is understood to have been suffering from depression.

Although still to break his duck under rules after being placed in two hunter chases, Dowty rode 12 winners between the flags, the majority for husband-and wife team Giles and Kim Smyly, based in Broadway.

Smyly said: “Since he was old enough to ride, Harry was mad keen on the pointing and his father, George, bought him a real nice horse, Parahandy, when he was 16 and he had three or four seasons with him and had half a dozen winners.
“That really got him going, and he was a promising and talented rider with ambitions to be a jockey at that point, and he rode out for myself and my wife every day. He was just a lovely kid and very good friend. It is a real tragedy for everybody.

“Because Harry had gone to university, he had other interests and in truth hadn't ridden nearly as much – he had a horse last year in point-to-points, but it didn't really work out because it went wrong and he didn't get many rides – but he was very much hoping to get back into it, although he didn't really have the right horse and that was more to the point.”

Dowty, a former Marlborough College student, previously had a stint with Jonjo O'Neill and also did a short spell of work experience with Richards Phillips.

Paying tribute on Wednesday, O'Neill said: “Harry was a lovely lad, the life and soul of the yard. He had a lovely way with horses and people and will be sorely missed.”

[my miss storm cat]

A shame. Poor kid.