Early in 1926, five years after Richards' racing debut, disaster struck the Shropshire jockey. He contracted tuberculosis and had to take time out from racing. But it was while he recuperated from the debilitating disease in a Norfolk sanatorium he met Bill Rowell, a fellow patient who was to have a major influence on his life. Rowell proved to be something of a mentor, teaching the young jockey how to cope with the riches that would come his way, as well as his popularity with high society in the class-ridden system that prevailed in Britain between the wars. The two became firm friends.