THIS week I got a bit of abuse online after riding Fayette County for JP McManus and Tim Vaughan at Taunton.
Fayette County is an eight-year-old but is very lightly raced. He’s only had 10 runs in his whole life. He only had three runs over hurdles last year. He’s already had two falls this season. The horse is not a bad jumper; in fact he is a very good one. Sometimes there is a lack of concentration from him.
He finished fourth when I rode him. It probably wasn’t the greatest of rides as I think he was the best horse in the race but my main obligation to the horse, Mr McManus and Mr Vaughan was to get him to finish. With three left to jump, he was looking good but I did not want to push it after his recent falls. Mr McManus is very experienced and understood what I was doing. The horse will win in time.
After the race, I received abuse on Twitter and one dissatisfied punter even rang my phone. In all sports you get this but it was the first time a person had rung me after losing money on a horse. He had probably seen Fayette County tipped in a newspaper and decided to put his money on it.
What really annoyed me was that he left a voicemail full of abuse. If I was playing for Manchester United in a Champions League match, I would not think a sports fan would ring me and leave a message. Social media is very good but at the same time it can be very annoying.
Even people in horse racing learn day-by-day but you’d like to think having worked with these animals for so long you’d have more of a judgement call than a punter. It does get a bit frustrating. It does rile you a bit.
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Sprinter Sacre’s comeback did not go as well those involved with him would have hoped. He came second to Dodging Bullets, who I tipped last week, in the Clarence House Chase. Sprinter Scare had been out for over a year before the race at Ascot. He was a brilliant horse before the long layoff but he looked different back on the track. I think Nicky Henderson, his trainer, has a tough task on his hands to get him back to that level.
The only winner I rode this week came at Musselburgh when I was on board Kashtaree. It was a good win for John Quinn, Kashtaree’s trainer. It was a quiet week really as I only had six rides.
I was scheduled to ride at Bangor-on-Dee but that was cancelled due to the cold weather we’re currently experiencing. Jockeys have been quite fortunate this year as there have been a few cancelled cards but not as many as the last few years. Instead of riding, I spent my day doing some painting – but I’d have sooner have been out racing!
