THE only man (or woman) who never made a mistake, never achieved anything.
The best part of four years ago Charlie Deutsch made a mistake. A big mistake.
He paid a heavy price for that mistake. It could easily have ended the career of one of jump racing’s brightest young riding prospects.
The details of Deutsch’s offence, that ended with him having his liberty being taken away, have been well documented and are easy to find if one so desires.
What has happened since his release is a far better indicator of the man. In those three-and-a-half years there appears to have been precious little time for feeling sorry for himself.
Deutsch will know full well how badly he let down those closest to him. His boss Venetia Williams, his family, his friends, his weighing room colleagues and, above all, himself.
His behaviour since appears to have been driven by his desire to repair the damage. The shadows of his darkest episode, although not ancient history, are now firmly in the past.
The way the 25-year-old has conducted himself since returning to race riding in 2018 has seen to that.
Jockeys are often said to have their heads down in a driving finish. Deutsch’s head has been down for those last three years or more. Not in self pity but in hard graft.
The fruits of his labours have been obvious for some time. On Saturday at Sandown they had so obviously ripened to perfection.
The person who had so publicly stood by the young jockey when he needed it most was rewarded thanks, certainly in part, by Deutsch’s talents.
Herefordshire trainer Venetia Williams is well known for her horses’ love of testing ground but there is little else in the public persona that suggests ‘soft’.
She might well have been within her rights to have ditched the disgraced rider in favour of a stable jockey with less baggage. But she didn’t.
She stood by her man when he was in need of support. She stood by him again on Saturday afternoon but this time it wasn’t figuratively, it was in the Sandown winners’ enclosure after crack novice L’Homme Presse had won the Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase.
It was Deutsch’s first Grade 1 winner and an important stop off point in a journey that could easily have ended in far less salubrious surroundings.
The affection he is clearly held in among his peers spilled out on to the steps of the weighing room as he was cheered back in by his fellow jockeys.
The land’s punters have come to appreciate him just as much. Although judging jockeys’ ability is a purely subjective pastime, for my money, Deutsch has developed into one of the best riders of the current crop.
While I feel underqualified to judge anyone sat on a horse in any race having done nothing remotely similar, his talent for presenting horses at fences is particularly pleasing.
It has, obviously, helped to have a steady supply of ammunition from an in-form stable like the one Williams runs in rural Herefordshire, but a look at the pairs high points this season is telling.
Aside from L’Homme Presse, there has been Cloudy Glen’s surprise Newbury success and Royal Pagaille’s Peter Marsh Chase victory.
There has also been notable wins for Fanion D’Estruval, Commodore and Frero Banbou. All chasers, all trained by Williams.
It seems like a partnership well matched. The demanding trainer with a history of winning big chases paired with the hard-working jockey, if not searching for redemption, certainly stumbling across it along the way.
Just to show it wasn’t all about chasers, little more than half an hour after their Grade 1 glory, the pair combined to win the Heroes Handicap Hurdle with Green Book.
It’s stretching the point way beyond breaking to suggest Deutsch might be a hero. Most would understandably argue against such fawning, not least the man himself, but how he has overcome the self-inflicted bump in the road, the size of which few have to negotiate, is no less admirable.
The old proverb says that manners maketh man and Deutsch clearly has those in humble abundance. This time, however, it is his mistake approaching mammoth proportions that has maketh this man.