Joining the 200-club
Of all the feelings, the main one is relief.
Everyone says, “ah, you’ll do it easily”, but when you get that close all you keep thinking about is what may go wrong. When you miss an opportunity, or a horse doesn’t run quite as well as you thought it might, it feels like you’re getting one further back each time.
I’m delighted to get it done and really pleased for Donald [McCain] who’s managed to equal his best-ever tally too.
Funnily enough, the horse who I rode my 200th winner on, Dreams Of Home, was also my 100th this season. He’s a nice type of horse and one I look forward to riding again. The form of the yard has been a big help, but I’ve ridden winners for 33 different trainers this season so there are plenty of people to thank.
My agent has done a fantastic job of getting me on the right ones on the right days and I’ve had a lot of luck too. As for whether I can do it again, I’m not quite thinking about that just yet and I’d like to add a couple more to this season’s tally first, but one thing I will say is that everything needs to fall right for you.
We had no meetings called off, no injuries, a hugely in-form yard and I virtually didn’t miss a meeting. Whether it will happen again like that I don’t know. I might never get near 200 again, but I’ll certainly try to!
I’m taking a few days off after Saturday and I’m going away with the family, but I know for a fact that I’ll be looking at the entries for the following Saturday the minute they’re out.
From the off, the aim will be to ride a winner on that first Saturday back. I was lucky enough to have a treble on the first day of this season, and I never looked back, so I suppose that’s the plan again.
‘Missing’ Cheltenham
There was a big thing made out about me missing Cheltenham this year, but that wasn’t a conscious choice between riding there or elsewhere, I just didn’t have rides.
I had one declared ride for Donald, and the rain on the Wednesday meant he was a non-runner, so it wasn’t like I was missing Cheltenham intentionally.
If I’d have had a good ride at Cheltenham I would love to have been there, but I didn’t have a single ride – let alone a good one – and that’s the bare bones of it.
Donald’s in a bit of a rebuilding phase and he’s buying a lot of nice, young stock, so fingers crossed some of them will turn out to be good enough to go to run on the big days in the near future.
