Evans looks to hit top gear for Ayr Gold Cup test

ANY aspiring apprentice jockey needs drive and determination to succeed and Nathan Evans has shown plenty of that. Until, that is, it comes to driving to the racecourse, which is still proving something of a problem for the 19-year-old as he grapples with the complexities of the theory test.

“We’ll not talk about that,” he said with a laugh. “I haven’t passed my theory yet and I’ve done it a few times but I need to get that sorted out.”

That means Evans will need to find a lift to ride Hoof It, who is among the leading contenders for the William Hill Ayr Gold Cup on Saturday, and he will hope the trials of learning to drive do not last quite as long as his trial with Hoof It’s trainer, Mick Easterby.

Evans arrived from Magherafelt, in Northern Ireland, two-and-a-half years ago to work at Easterby’s yard in North Yorkshire.

“He said to come over on a week’s trial,” Evans recalled. “He’s said nothing since. A week had gone, a month had gone and I’m still there – and I don’t even know if I’ve got the job yet but, hopefully, he’s happy.”

Easterby was happy enough to pay for Evans to take a flight to Goodwood last month to ride Hoof It, who then flew home to win the Stewards’ Sprint, beating Related by just a neck. That was five years after the horse had won the Stewards’ Cup itself and Evans was still at school when Hoof It won as a juvenile in 2009.

“He led for most of the way and you have to time the fractions right when you’re riding from the front,” Evans said. “When the other horse, Related, came upsides on my right it helped me in the last half furlong. My horse is blind in his left eye, so he could see him and that made him go on again.

“They called it a photo but I was pretty sure I’d won and I just gave him a pat on the shoulder. He can be a bit quirky. When you get him down to the start, you have to put a blindfold on him straight away and he stands in the corner by himself with someone from the yard holding him and me patting him, and then he’s as happy as Larry.

“He’s been doing it for so long that’s he’s got a routine and as long as that happens he’s OK and then in the race he’s a game horse. He used to be more of a hold-up horse but now we ride him from the front.”

Hoof It is owned by golfer Lee Westwood and the player’s agent Chubby Chandler and the pair also own Hoofalong, on whom Evans won the Scottish Sprint Cup at Musselburgh, so it is no surprise they are happy to stick with Evans and his valuable 5lb allowance. “Hoof It will be in there with a big shout,” Evans said. “I know he’s an older horse and he wasn’t running great for a while. But he’s in tip-top form at home right now and at his best he was only beaten a nose and a head in the Sprint Cup at Haydock a couple of years ago and he’s shown that he’s getting somewhere back to that. “He’s dropped down in the weights a bit, even allowing for his win at Goodwood. He’s on 99 now but I reckon he could win off that, especially with my 5lb claim.” And that 5lb claim may just come in handy in a driving finish. Paul Wheeler