TIME’S A HEALER FOR JOE
JOE COLLIVER has a clouded recollection when asked to relive the moment of reckoning that changed his life forever.
“I couldn’t hear what anybody was saying — it was just noise,” he says. “I couldn’t see properly — it was just blurred.
“I felt everybody turn round and look at me. I can’t describe the feeling. A 10-month prison sentence. I just sank.”
It was August 2016 and the Sheffield-born jockey was standing in the dock at Teesside Crown Court, having pleaded guilty to attempting to pervert the course of justice and drink driving.
In the early hours of Boxing Day 2015, Colliver had been at the wheel when his Mitsubishi hit a wall in Leyburn, North Yorkshire. He was twice the legal limit.
Fearing his career in the saddle in jeopardy, he paid a friend £2,500 to tell police he had taken the pick-up without Colliver’s consent. But under scrutiny from officers the story collapsed.
“I thought that was me over and done with as a jockey,” admits the 26-year-old (above). “Who wants a jockey with a prison conviction?” But the contrite Colliver’s redemption will be complete if he lands one of jump racing’s most coveted prizes the Stayers’ Hurdle, aboard the Jedd O’Keeffetrained Sam Spinner at Cheltenham on Thursday.
Having served three months of his sentence, Colliver was released under curfew, returning to work for boss Micky Hammond, who had attended court to plead on his behalf. On board Sam Spinner for two bumper starts in the spring of 2016, Colliver had lost the ride to Brian Harding while confined to his cell. Back in racecourse action in January last year, days after his tag had been removed — “everybody shook my hand and said it was good to see me, which was a relief because I’d let them down as much as anybody” — Collier regained the Sam Spinner mount in a novice hurdle at Catterick the following month.
“Brian was injured, so I was lucky enough to get the ride back,” he recalls, “and I won. That was his last run for the season, and then Brian retired.”
With Hammond’s unswerving support — “he’s just an all-round top guy” — and rides from neighbouring stables in Middleham, Colliver has rebuilt his career, reaching a new peak when Sam Spinner landed the Grade 1 Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot two days before Christmas.
“It’s great to be riding in races like that, let alone being able to win for somebody like Jedd and his wife Andrea, and the people who have supported me for so long,” says Colliver.
“It would be fantastic to ride a Festival winner and I think we go there with every chance.
“All you can do is dream.”