MY good form of late continued as I followed up a brace of seconds with a win on Missed Approach at Ffos Las on Saturday.
Warren Greatrex, who trained the four-year-old, has asked me to ride a few spares for him this year.
It’s my first year of dealing with Warren as he’s an up and coming trainer. I’m very impressed with what I’ve seen so far. He’s relaxed, he places the horses very well, knows what type of horse he has and reads the race well.
I can’t see why he won’t make it to the top bracket of trainers in the country in the coming years.
Every jockey hits a purple patch like the one I’m enjoying at the moment. But let’s not forget, it’s good horses that make decent jockeys and trainers.
Missed Approach is a very nice horse and it’s hard to believe he’s only four. Unlike the animal, it was a horrible day by the Welsh coast.
A strong gale blew and it was holding with heavy ground, the horse’s natural ability pulling him through in the end. On the topic of bad weather, Arctic conditions have been forecast for December.
All I think at this time of year is to make sure my wife doesn’t get hold of the Visa card for the next month!
From a jockey’s point of view, if you don’t ride you don’t earn. There’s nothing worse than having a borderline situation where the racing might not be on. You get in your car, drive for three hours and then it’s called off. You’ve earned nothing and spent £100 on a tank of diesel.
When you know that you’re going to have a week of snow and you cannot leave the house, then you kind of accept it. You say all right, fair enough. You think ‘I’m going to have a quiet week and re-charge the batteries’. Given how safe the tracks are these days, arguably the most dangerous aspect about racing when it is snowy is the driving to the track.
For riders, the bitter cold has obvious effects too. It’s minus three or four and the jockeys aren’t wearing many layers. You feel particularly sorry for the lads who race on the flat. At this time of year, they are allowed a pound extra in weight.
It’s a small but significant sum. Especially for men in nothing but a paper-thin layer of lycra, a back pad, colours and a light pair of boots. Some jockeys might try to make up that extra pound, they will be on the borderline of wearing nothing.
There are a lot of lads over jumps who struggle with the weight too.
But for me, who rides both codes, it seems a little harder for the boys on the flat. They tend to be constantly at minimum weight. Your Adam Kirbys and Richard Hugheses would be nine stone as their bottom weights. They might wake up every day at 9 stone ’4 or ’5.
In mid-winter, you’re trying to sweat off five pounds in a warm box. Of course you’re going to feel that cold when you go outside. That’s their daily routine. The extra pound means he could wear a warm pair of tights.
After riding out early, they’d jump in the bath, sweat off two or three pounds then go racing and lose two more. That’s no mean feat seven days a week. In the summer, it’s easier to maintain your weight because you naturally sweat a couple of pounds without realising it. When it’s this cold, your body doesn’t not want to sweat so it holds that fluid a lot more.
Racing’s always a fight against the elements and nature.
The jump lads tend to have a little bit more muscle as they ride on softer ground so the sweating and the weighing is a lot different. It was particularly wet last week. Riding out in the morning, you’re going in and out of the Weigh Room and you go visit every season.
So I can expect a few more head colds like the one I picked up.
As long as I carry on this purple patch, I don’t mind.
***
Since I’ve lived here, we’ve only had one really bad winter.
It was four years ago and a lot of lads weren’t working because we had around eight weeks of snow. In a strange way I was lucky, because I’d broken my ankle. I was off injured and received some assistance from the Injured Jockeys Fund.
The IJF do a brilliant job helping jockeys who are most in need. I’ve been broke up four or five times and believe me I would be homeless if it hadn’t been for them.
It’s not just a charity; all riders pay into a pot from their riding fees. If you’ve a mortgage to pay and a family to feed they are our insurance policy. We might pay two pounds a ride into this pot and whenever it’s needed it’s there.
The IJF supported the first National Jockey Day, which launched at Haydock. I first caught wind of the day while walking out to ride, so I at first I didn’t think much about it — my mind was on other things.
But anything partly supported by the IJF has to be worthwhile and punters were asked to support by tweeting #NationalJockeyDay.
£1 per tweet (up to £10,000) was to be donated to the Injured Jockeys Fund by Betfair.
Elsewhere the Hennessy Festival starts at Newbury this week.
Like many people, my favourite memory in recent times was seeing the tough but hardy Denman ride home at top weight in the Gold Cup back in 2009.
Let’s hope more history can be made this week.
