H&H interview
The champion Flat jockey tells Hannah Lemieux about making the leap from jump racing, career-changing phone calls and putting the sport in perspective
Champion Flat jockey Jim Crowley
SOME jump jockeys make the decision to switch codes onto the Flat, some even do it very well (the likes of Graham Lee and Dougie Costello), but there is only one man so far who has gone from an established jump jockey to champion Flat jockey.
“I overheard someone in the weighing room say Silvestre de Sousa couldn’t be beaten and he’d definitely win the title,” reflects Jim Crowley. “If a person says I can’t do something it really gets my back up — from then on I was obsessed with becoming champion jockey.”
The 38-year-old lifted the prestigious trophy last October at Ascot’s Champions
Day — Flat racing’s season finale — having ridden 189 winners that year.
When Jim rode 46 winners in September (more than some jockeys can ride in a season) he smashed the record for the number of victories ridden in one month and it hit home to the industry just how serious this former jump jockey was about becoming the best in the game.
It took steely determination and commitment, a degree of single-mindedness and a rigorous routine of riding mixed with hours of travelling (so much in fact, that Jim employed a driver).
“It was a mad time, I was running completely on adrenalin — every race I rode in had to be a winner. I had to give it absolutely everything,” he says.
“Silvestre and I had a brilliant battle and even though I had the championship in the bag during the final week, I still couldn’t quite let myself believe it was happening — it’s every jockey’s dream to be champion.
“The plan last season was actually to finish as close as possible to the top of the leaderboard and then I was going to go for
it this year,” Jim tells me. “However, after ‘Glorious Goodwood’ in August I was only about 17 wins behind Silvestre and my agent Tony Hind called me and said, ‘Are we going for it?’ — I knew we’d have to really go some to beat Silvestre.”
Growing up, Jim never envisaged a career as a Flat jockey. “As a kid, I thought that game was for wimps,” he laughs.
He learned his trade with West Yorkshire trainer Sue Smith and her husband, renowned former showjumper, Harvey.
“Working for them was brilliant, one of the best times in my life and I was taught so much — Harvey is such a gifted horseman.”
IT is a typical Monday morning in the Crowley household — pony-mad kids Alice, 10, Bella, seven, and Sam, four, feast on a breakfast of pancakes before heading to school. I’m left wondering how
Jim maintains a jockey’s diet with all this food in the house, but he reminds me he was one of the lucky ones and was always too light for the jumping game.
West Sussex has been Jim’s home since moving down south in his late 20s and marrying Lucinda, sister of racehorse trainer Amanda Perrett.
Jim tells me how influential Amanda was in the early days after he made the leap into the Flat industry aged 27.
“I wasn’t struggling over jumps — I was riding on average 50 wins a season — but I wasn’t where I wanted to be,” explains Jim.
“If I’d stayed as a jump jockey it’s likely
I’d be retired by now. I made the decision to change and have never looked back.
“There was a mixed reaction from people and I had to start right at the bottom, literally riding anything anywhere. Amanda was a great support and really helped me get off the ground as a Flat jockey — since then my career seems to have snowballed each season.”
Making the move from National Hunt to the Flat may sound like a straightforward switch, but Jim highlights the fact they are contrasting styles of riding.
“The jump boys are so brave and, having done it myself, I take my hat off to them all. You have to be a proper horseman — you can’t just leave school with no experience and become a jump jockey,” he says.
“Riding on the Flat is so different; it’s much more about pace and tactics — a split-second decision can make all the difference. Each day I go through the form ahead of racing, seeing who I’m drawn next to and which horse I should be tracking in the race. It’s all about doing your homework.
“Being a jockey is a tough way of life and I wouldn’t be bothered if my children didn’t want to be jockeys — you eat, sleep, race and repeat.”
THIS mantra — despite being an unforgiving way of life — has certainly paid off for Jim and on the back of becoming champion Flat jockey he secured the top job as first jockey for owner Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum.
“I got the phone call totally out of blue — I wasn’t expecting it at all,” remembers Jim. “Those opportunities don’t come around often.
“Your career instantly goes to another level; it’s a massive change. Riding as a freelance jockey was great as you could always pick up a spare ride, but now I am riding some of the best-bred racehorses in the country.”
A three-month spell in Dubai over the winter months gelled their association.
“We had quite a bit of success over there, which got the ball rolling. I know it will be harder to ride the quantity of winners I did last season because I will be going to the bigger meetings, where doubles and trebles are harder to come by.”
Amid his success in the saddle and merely a few weeks after claiming the championship, Jim was involved in the serious pile-up at Kempton Park that paralysed his friend and weighing room colleague Freddy Tylicki.
“It does put everything in perspective. You get used to falls in jump racing, but when it’s a close friend it’s tough and does hit home,” says Jim, who was very lucky to come away from the incident with just a broken nose.
“I went from one extreme to another in a very short space of time — it’s the highs and lows that come with the sport but you have to block it from your mind otherwise you couldn’t do the job.”
Being a jockey may be considered a young man’s sport, but at 38 Jim’s at the height of his career and he’s quashing any stereotype.
“For as long as I am fit, healthy and riding winners I’ll keep going,” he says. “It’s amazing how everything has worked out — I would not change a thing.”
‘If a person says I can’t do something it really gets my
back up’