It hurts to be ‘jocked off ’ but it goes with the turf
It happens to even the best jockeys at some stage, – with the exception of Lester Piggott
Tomorrow, one of the nation’s favourite chasers, Cue Card, will have a new jockey, when 19-year-old Harry Cobden takes over from Paddy Brennan, whose 14 rides on the gelding netted six wins.
However, the pair fell in two Gold Cups, and another fall on Cue Card’s reappearance this month at Wetherby prompted the owner and trainer to make a change.
To his credit, Brennan has been philosophical, and Cobden revealed yesterday that he had even offered advice on how to get the best out of Cue Card. But being “jocked off ” a horse you might reasonably assume is “your ride” hurts. Do not let any jockey tell you otherwise.
Being an amateur and low down the food chain, I was jocked off plenty of times by professionals. Even with Mr Frisk on his second-last start before he won the 1990 Grand National, they decided to go with a professional at Ascot. I have to admit, I prayed for rain, the good Lord provided, and on soft ground which he detested, Mr Frisk gave Anthony Tory an awful ride and was pulled up. I was back on next time.
When you are in the bubble, you take it as a personal affront, although now I look back and wonder why I got so flustered about it. It happens to nearly all jockeys at some stage, even the best – with, perhaps, the exception of Lester Piggott.
Lester was able to jock off anyone and was ruthless about it. In the 1984 St Leger, he replaced Darrel Mchargue on the winner, Commanche Run, because he was chummy with owner Ivan Allan. Interviewed in Sporting Life, Mchargue said, as nonchalantly as he could muster, that he did not particularly mind because he was playing tennis that afternoon.
On Piggott’s way to Doncaster, it started to rain. “Doesn’t look like he’ll be getting much tennis either,” mumbled Lester to his driver.
Even John Francome was jocked off in the early days. On the schooling ground, a horse of Fred Winter’s had misbehaved with stable jockey Richard Pitman and got stuck on top of a fence. Francome took ages restoring the horse’s confidence and getting him to jump but when it came to race, Winter put Pitman back on and the animal duly trotted up at Lingfield.
“I was spitting,” recalls Francome. “I was driving Fred home from the races and he fell asleep. It was an old Volvo and they weren’t well padded, so I kept touching the brakes and, bonk, he’d hit his head. He’d wake up rubbing it, fall asleep again until, bonk, I touched the brakes again. When we pulled up outside his house, he said: ‘What happened there? I’ve a sore head.’”
Later, though, the boot was on the other foot and Francome even managed to jock off Jonjo O’neill, who had won five on the bounce on a horse trained by Neville Callaghan, when he came to run in the Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham.
In the race, Francome gave the horse an appalling ride and Callaghan announced in the Life that Francome would never ride for him again. Before Aintree, however, Francome rang the trainer, apologised, said Callaghan was quite right and that he would not make the same mistake again. He was reinstated for Aintree but gave the horse an even worse ride and was again a well-beaten favourite.
A few years later, after a stint as a Channel 4 pundit, he had to pick up Philippa Kindersley, a neighbour’s wife, from Newmarket and give her a lift back to Lambourn. She was in Callaghan’s kitchen when Francome pulled into the yard. “Here’s John,” she said to Callaghan. “It’s a shame he’s packed up riding.”
“It’s a shame that he ever started!” countered Callaghan.