JUMPS jockeys wouldn’t usually consider Christmas as a time of reflection as it tends to be one of the busiest periods for us.
But still, looking back at the year my big success was probably winning the mare’s race last year on Cockney Sparrow at Wetherby and riding the three winners at Kelso.
The third win that day was for a friend of mine, Larry McGrath. He used to ride for Richard Guest and he was an old weighing room colleague. To ride him a winner was brilliant.
A particularly memorable meeting was at Newbury when I won the mare’s final for Tim Easterby because my daughter Aoife was born the same day. My wife went into labour that morning and it was a bit of a rush. It was March 22. My wife’s water burst at 4.45 that morning.
We were joking that she couldn’t go on that day and Tim had planned that race a long way out. There was a £20,000 hurdle on the Friday that won as well and it was like “the plan is working”. Tim even said just before “surely you’re waters won’t go”. She woke me up and the waters had gone so I was panicking. She said they’d broken around quarter to five and she’d already rang the midwife who said to go in around 9.30.
She told me to go back to sleep, which I couldn’t. I left the house around 12 with my wife lying on the couch doing her breathing exercises with her mother there. I was riding at 2.10 so I raced down to Newbury. The mare won by a neck.
I got back in with a text message saying Amy had been rushed to hospital as her contractions had gone 6cm. I got changed very quickly, jumped in the car and got up the road. Aoife was born at 12.35am on the Sunday, March 23. It was a long but exciting day. I went to Market Rasen on the Sunday and rode a winner in the bumper. That weekend was brilliant.
This year was hard. There are a lot more lads riding freelance, a lot less runners. It seemed more of an effort. Results have been good but everyone has felt a pull in the last few years. It felt like I did a lot of miles just to get winners and rides.
My biggest disappointment was being dropped off Hawkhigh. He won the Fred Winter last year at Cheltenham and every race I rode him in was soft ground. I was placed on him. I might have rode him three times. I always said to Tim the horse needed good ground, the better the ground the quicker he’ll be.
Then I got dropped off him for Cheltenham because he didn’t win for us. Brian Hughes won the Fred Winter with him. I’ve dropped lads off a horse myself but when it happens to you, especially at Cheltenham, it’s not nice. My biggest achievement meanwhile was my daughter being born.
I want to ride 50-plus winners this year. I like to ride 30 before Christmas and I might have a good chance. I’ve ridden five or six winners on the flat but I want 50 on the jumps. I like a double or treble on the flat too. I wouldn’t start looking at the flat until the middle of June. We’re still quite busy in April and May.
I’m known as a jump jockey but two or three seasons ago I got broke up so I took on the flat as I was quite light. This year I had five winners from 70. I should have been reaching nine or 10 but there’s a lot to horses to ride over jumps.
