I NEVER knew Ken Dooley, the stable groom who died at Kempton Park racecourse on Saturday night after he was kicked in the head by a racehorse, but I have been privileged to know so many people like him over the years since I started following the Sport of Kings and Commoners alike.

Selfless and totally dedicated to their charges, stable staff are the true unsung heroes and heroines of racing. Without them, trainers would not be able to function and, with all due respect to racehorse owners, there are very, very few of them who will get up at the crack of dawn every day to clean a horse and its stable.

I don’t often agree with the authorities in any sport, but totally concur with these words of Nick Rust, the chief executive of the British Horseracing Authority: “I am sure I speak for everyone at the BHA and everyone in British horseracing when I state that we are truly devastated about the events which unfolded at Kempton Park. Our sympathies go to the family, friends and colleagues of the individual who has lost his life [Dooley had not been named at that point] and the entire industry will join in mourning over this tragedy.

“We owe so much in our sport to the racing grooms who provide such first-class care and attention to our horses. The love and attention that they give to their mounts is unconditional and comes with that small but ever-present level of risk that exists when working with large animals. This only serves to make their dedication so much more praiseworthy.”

The dangers of working with an unpredictable half-ton of muscle and bone with steel-tipped feet are only too obvious. Dooley was hugely skilful, and he and every other groom like him know those dangers, and I know hardly any stable staff that hasn’t had a kick or a bite or been thrown from the saddle or squashed up against a wall by a horse that will one second be docile and yet the next will be as crazy as a loon.

Death on the racecourse is all too often associated with horses, as the usual suspects always tell us, but the risk to human life and limb is too often not appreciated.

It’s only a few months since the tragic accident at Haydock when stalls handler Stephen Yarborough was killed by a mobile starting stalls before a race.

It is those who work on top of, or alongside, horses who run the greatest risks in sport, as I am reliably informed that equestrianism of all kinds is the most dangerous of all competitive sports in terms of the number who are killed or injured around the world each year.

Every time I hear of an accident on the race track, on the gallops or in the stables, I wonder if horseracing or showjumping or eventing is worth the human cost. For the sake of avoiding the usual trolling from the animal rights mob, it’s also a question I have often asked about the death of horses, and it’s only because I have satisfied myself that everything possible is done for the safety and health of horses that I continue to follow the various equine sports – and because, if you ban racing in Britain, there will be around 20,000 thoroughbreds that suddenly nobody needs and you don’t see the various “ban racing” brigades queuing up to offer them a home.

Boxing probably has a greater number of deaths and serious injuries in terms of “per head of participants” and obviously my thoughts right now are with Gary Murray and his family after his head injury in a brave performance against Paddy Gallagher at Meadowbank earlier this month. The Coatbridge fighter was reported to be making progress and hopefully all will be fine in the long term.

I remember the boxers I have met who have died, especially James Murray, in 1995, and Mike Towell last year. I know I am not the only boxing fan who has asked himself if it’s worth the candle when young people go in to the ring and emerge into a coma or a coffin.

Next year we will commemorate the death of the great Scottish racing driver Jim Clark at Hockenheimring. I recall only too well the death of Ayrton Senna at the San Marino Grand Prix in 1994, but how many remember that Roland Ratzenberger was killed in qualifying the previous day? One of my favourite drivers, Gilles Villeneuve, was also killed in qualification for the Belgian Grand Prix in 1982 and, worldwide, motor racing still kills drivers and spectators every year. We have to ask, is that morally justifiable?

Yet the most dangerous recreation of them all, in terms of sheer numbers of people who die while doing that activity, is swimming – on average 10 people die every day from unintentional drownings while swimming in the US alone.

The World Health Organisation calculated that in 2015, some 360,000 people drowned across the globe, many of whom who got into difficulties while swimming – and a large proportion of them were young people in poor countries. So do we ban swimming? Of course not: we teach our kids to swim and we teach them to avoid fast rivers and tides.

As for all the other sports I have mentioned, while the aim should be to make them safer, there will always be risk attached to any sport, however safe it may be, but the health benefits of participating in sport far outweigh the risks.

It’s just that, right now, I wouldn’t blame Ken Dooley’s family and friends if they wanted racing banned. Yet from the little I have learned of this lifelong horseman, I would be willing to bet he wouldn’t.