By Emma Berry
Happy Blue Monday, if that's not a contradiction in terms. Some of us may feel that the whole of January is utterly foul, but someone, somewhere, once decided that the third Monday of this month was the most depressing day of the year, so here we are.
Fear not, however, because if you need a little pick-me-up on this dark day then you could do worse than follow the Twitter account of trainer Fergal O'Brien (@OBMRacing), head of the most upwardly mobile National Hunt stable in Britain, which is guaranteed to deliver daily something between a belly laugh and a small chortle, and often both. Considering the high frequency of winners emanating from O'Brien's stable (he is currently ahead of the multiple champion Paul Nicholls in this regard and was the first of his colleagues to breach the 100-winner mark this season), one might very well wonder how the trainer finds so much time to tweet. The answer is that he doesn't.
Like a number of trainers, O'Brien outsources his social media, and those familiar with the account may assume that he employs a full-time comedian to manage his online presence, but in fact he doesn't employ anyone. The man behind the account is Dr Simon Gillson (@DrSimonCMP), who co-founded the private general practice company Concierge Medical in 2013 and tweets for fun, which has in turn brought plenty of fun to others. That he is based close to Cleeve Hill allows 'Dr Simon', as he's known in racing circles, to indulge his passion for the jumps at Cheltenham, his local racecourse, and at O'Brien's nearby yard of Ravenswell.
“We have a private medical practice in the Cotswolds, an old-fashioned family doctor home-visiting service, and the first person that ever signed up to that back in late 2013 was one of Ferg's owners,” Gillson explains. “I didn't know him at the time but towards the end of 2014, I went to the owners' and trainers' bar with him in Cheltenham. That's when I met Ferg and, like any good trainer, within four weeks of that he had encouraged me to buy a share in a racehorse.”
He continues, “Both my grandads liked to bet, and then one of them particularly used to go racing, so when I was growing up in Yorkshire, you could get to about nine or 10 courses within an hour and a half. During summer holidays we spent a lot of time Flat racing, which at the time was great, but then that morphed into me being more of a National Hunt fan.”
I've had diets that have lasted longer than Davy's retirement
Actually that's probably not true but great to see him back https://t.co/US9oSrpMAm
— O'Brien-McPherson Racing (@OBMRacing) January 12, 2023
'Racing Twitter' really took off about a decade ago and during that time there have been some good, bad and downright ugly exchanges on the social networking site.
Jockeys, especially, and some trainers come in for plenty of stick, which can often be deeply unpleasant, but Twitter has also become a vital news and promotional source for the industry, as well as a huge amount of amusement.
Those trainers and jockeys who have stuck with the platform can use it to their advantage while giving racing fans some great behind-the-scenes insight, though there has been a trend for 'managed' social media accounts, which lose something in their inauthenticity. That is certainly not the case for O'Brien, thanks to the wacky humour of Gillson, whose wry daily observations on all manner of subjects from the sporting to baking to the political are a breath of fresh air. He also doesn't neglect his real-life position (IRL, as the kids like to say) as a doctor to put across the more serious message of mental health issues while avoiding the soppy memes that pop up around this important subject.
“I think, with my doctor head on, we have a platform now which has helped people,” he says. “Combine that with the horses, and we're able to help people. Even if that's just a few that come to the yard and feel so much better about it, then that's obviously no skin off our noses at all. And the thought that we've made someone's day a bit better is brilliant. And if they want to come back then that's fine as well, because there is clearly a therapeutic effect to horses for some people and we're very happy to share that with anybody.
“I was doing the social media for my medical practice, and it's a very different environment doing medical-related tweets. It's not exactly a jokey thing. And then I realised that nobody was really doing any social media for the yard, which seemed such a shame for someone with Ferg's size of personality not to be getting some of that out across into social media. So that's where it started.”
Gillson continues, “The whole point to it really was that I felt quite lucky when I took that share [in a horse] and then got up to the yard to see things that I'd never seen as a racegoer. It opened my eyes to how much goes on behind the scenes. There are so many people involved. It's funny, it's hard work, it's heartbreaking at times. And actually I felt that that's the sort of stuff that people should be seeing. And yeah, I think my original thought process was that I'd like to be able to tweet what I'd like to see as a race fan. And that's where we were aiming from. I think some of the jokes and things came in later.
As we've noted, at the moment it's difficult to believe that 2023 is going to be any better than recent years
If you're struggling with your mental health and think that a trip to see our horses would help, the invite to Ravenswell Farm and Martins Hill remains
#ItsOkNotToBeOk pic.twitter.com/1ywPVBezFp— O'Brien-McPherson Racing (@OBMRacing) December 31, 2022
“There were a lot were lot of accounts run by trainers or people within the stable, which obviously knew a huge amount of stuff about the horses and racing but weren't conveying it that brilliantly. Or there were some obviously PR-led ones which were beautiful but didn't give you a huge amount of insight into what was actually going on. And the aim was to try and get somewhere in between the two. I did wonder early on in this whether people would get fed up.”
In fact, the opposite has happened, and in the seven years that Gillson has been tweeting for O'Brien, the stable's account has accrued 55,500 followers, and counting. On occasion, followers will suggest to the trainer that the unofficial social media manager needs a pay rise.
“He'll say 'you can have a hundred per cent raise', because he's paying me nothing,” says the doctor with a laugh.
With some of his tweets, his wry humour has sailed a bit close to the wind and the Twitter overlords have suspended the account on occasion.
He adds, “The most embarrassing one I got banned for was Covid misinformation because I made what was very obviously a joke based on a professor who was on TV a lot at the start of the pandemic who kept saying that everything will be all right.”
As we all know, not everything is all right all of the time. We all need a break from the norm sometimes, and for people who love racing but do not have the level of access of the sport's daily practitioners, social media has been invaluable in transporting people virtually, or sometimes in the case of O'Brien's open-door policy, actually to the heart of the action. Gillson is not immune to its benefits either.
“I enjoy doing it and it's a welcome release from my day job,” he says. “Don't get me wrong, I have worked in much more stressful environments, but still it's nice to have something which is completely different.”
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