ONE JUMP AHEAD
Crowley’s Flat out to be the new champion
Standing outside Windsor’s weighing room, Jim Crowley is reflecting on the best season of his life when a racegoer approaches.
She gently touches his arm and says quietly: ‘Jim, you are my favourite jockey. i will be backing you today,’ before walking off, hopefully to profit from the two winners her man later partners.
For a moment Crowley looks bashful before he says: ‘it has been nice. People have wanted selfies and autographs. it’s a nice feeling but i am not used to it.’ He needs to start being better prepared for displays of public recognition.
On Saturday at ascot, barely a furlong from where he was born in the town’s Heatherwood Hospital, Crowley, with 146 wins so far, will be crowned the 2016 champion jockey — but not the one he dreamed about as a child.
For young Jim the visions were of gold Cups, Champion Hurdles, Cheltenham Festivals and grand nationals not the big Flat racing prize meetings and certainly not Flat racing championships.
Crowley’s parents trained pointto- pointers and he grew up hunting and showjumping before partnering around 300 winners over jumps, including a stint at the stable run by Sue and Harvey Smith on Bingley Moor.
Crowley even rode in the grand national, although art Prince, his Martin Pipe-trained mount in the 2001 aintree contest, only got as far as the first. it was a moment that probably reflected how Crowley felt at the time.
He was competing but not at the level he wanted. a career that was frustrating him prompted a rethink. a really fruitful one.
Crowley says: ‘i wanted to be champion jump jockey but i wouldn’t have been anyway with AP McCoy around — even if i had been good enough!
‘it was a big change. i never switched from jumps to Flat racing thinking i’d be champion, but i wasn’t where i wanted to be over jumps. i wanted to be at the top and couldn’t get there. i kept getting injured and wasn’t prepared to settle for being middle of the road. i asked a few of my jumps colleagues and they said, “Who is going to want to put up an ex-jump jockey?”
‘that just made me want to do it more, but when i started i was getting a lot of rubbish to ride.
‘if anyone had a dodgy one, it was, “Stick him on it, he’s an ex-jump jockey he’ll sort it out”.’
the ‘rubbish’ is now thankfully a distant memory for Crowley, who is in demand more than ever with rising newmarket-based star Hugo Palmer his biggest supplier of winners this summer. But Crowley feels foundations established over jumps have been one of the reasons for his success on the Flat where traditional apprenticeships have all but ended and too many impatient youngsters try to fly before they can walk.
‘On the Flat, you can learn to ride at 16, go to apprentice school and become a jockey, but not over jumps when you have to do it from day one,’ says Crowley. ‘in terms of my horsemanship, it has been massive. in jumping you can’t be too big for your boots or cocky, otherwise you’ll end up in a&E.’
Crowley’s father-in-law, retired trainer guy Harwood, encouraged him to switch. it also helped that trainer amanda Perrett, sister of his wife Lucinda, supplied enough decent rides to help Crowley start changing opinions.
it has taken him just over a decade, and at the age of 38 a conscious decision to make things happen to get to the top. Crowley, never closer than seventh in previous jockey championships, decided this was his time. He increased focus and recruited the agent who steered Richard Hughes and Ryan Moore to their champion jockey titles.
the new champion says: ‘there has definitely been a change in my mind-set this year. i have probably got a bit more self-confidence and if you want to win something you will go to extremes to do it. if you want to be champion jockey you have to go out there thinking you can win on just about everything, whether it is 20-1 or 50-1.’
Crowley has pushed himself hard. He had 200 rides in September, often using a helicopter to take in more than one meeting a day. His schedule has meant little time for children alice, nine, Bella, seven, and Sam, three, and he jokes that those close to his Sussex home probably think the Crowleys have become a one-parent family.
there is an irony in what Crowley has put himself through, flogging around the country, racking up winners at minor meetings.
Last year, the parameters for the Stobart- sponsored Flat jockeys’ championship were changed, with a month at either end of the season lopped off. the move, which appalled traditionalists, was designed to make the core season count most and encourage big names like Frankie dettori and Moore to be interested in the title.
Crowley has still done it the hard way, overwhelming his closest rival Silvestre de Sousa with an avalanche of winners. and while Crowley agrees with the changes, he says he would have still pushed under the old system.
‘Ryan and Frankie have been there and done it. they used to want it as much as i do now and the reason they don’t want it is the work load,’ Crowley says. ‘But the lads coming through — andrea atzeni, William Buick and James doyle — all want to be champion. there is no question. i will feel very privileged to have done it.’
two months into the season, he wasn’t in contention after a slow start. But 38 wins in July put him back on the edge of the race and 14 wins behind de Sousa.
Crowley hit the front on august 28 with a Windsor treble and was turbo-charged in September when his record 46 successes beat the previous best of 45 wins shared by legendary names of the turf, Fred archer and Sir gordon Richards.
Crowley’s name will now be alongside theirs on the honour roll of Flat Champion Jockeys.
‘i will only believe it when my hands are on the trophy,’ Crowley says. Start believing, Jim.