Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A jockey acknowledged as the most complete of his generation, twice Grand National winner and three-time champion, famed for his fierce will to win.
On the island
Eight records
Clare IslandFavourite
Uh well the Saw Doctors actually are are are great friends of uh basically of racing. In ninety three when I won my first championship they came and played for me. Uh they know a lot of people in racing. Uh they follow a bit of the r the racing and uh now they've got a great great following around their concerts in in England and Ireland whenever whenever they play from from the racing fraternity.
reminds me very much of uh my school days at at Rehncombe College and near Sarncester. This uh evokes quite a lot of uh memories f from from school.
It's one of the the great football anthems. Something I've been able to go to a little bit more over the last three or four years. I've been down to Chelsea a few times lately and I really enjoy the football.
memories you were telling me of of letting your hair down before Christmas, but on Christmas Day you have to be on your best behaviour because Boxing Day can be a big day in the racing calendar.
Yes, it's been a great interest of mine over the last, I'd say, four or five years. Formula One I've actually driven as well in Formula First. But I I love this record
this certainly will send a shiver down my spine. ... It's played every year before and in the run up to the Grand National. We have televisions in the in the changing rooms and we're all watching the countdown to the national, and this invariably crops up sometime through the programme.
it's um dedicated to someone who has been quite a large influence on on my life over the last three or four years, Emma Heanley.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:30Do you still get the same thrill of anticipation [for the Grand National] as you did the first time, or does it fade?
I do, so I'm really looking forward to the race. The butterflies are starting to build and it's a great race to ride in. You've got a great challenge. The thirty fence is four point five miles and it's unique.
Presenter asks
8:21Was there trouble from teachers and parents when you wanted to [leave school to follow racing]?
Uh there was a little at the time, yes. It uh caused a little bit of a stir in the family. ... I think my mother would have liked me to have taken A levels and maybe eventually uh become a vet. But to actually been in college for six or seven years, however long it takes, it wasn't very appealing at the time.
Presenter asks
14:01What percentage [of success] is it horse and what percentage is it rider?
Um I was a quite a large percentage horse. ... You put it in the race, you give it a winning chance, and you don't make mistakes, and it's the jockey who makes the least mistakes, rides the most winners.
The keepsakes
The book
J. R. R. Tolkien
To go with them I would take uh J. R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings. Um it was a book I I read a long time ago at uh at school. I wouldn't say I'm the quickest reader in the world, so probably by the time I've finished it once I'm Be able to start all over again.
The luxury
Luxury definitely ice cream, especially on a desert island. Ah, but I love it. I think I must be the only person in the middle of winter minus five degrees and walk into a garage and buy an ice cream. They look at me as if I'm mad.
Presenter asks
17:09This competitive instinct... has it frightened you?
Uh it gets very all consuming sometimes and especially I'd say four or five years ago when we were involved in championship struggles, uh it was the only thing that mattered to me was to win the next race and wars would be going on around the world and ... It meant nothing, all you were concentrating on, all you were focused on was riding the next next winner.
Presenter asks
23:43What effect does this [obsessive lifestyle] have on your personal life?
Personal life, I as I say, I've been being married to a lovely girl, Carol. We separated in ninety four. Uh still get on very well. ... I would s I wouldn't like to blame horse racing uh completely on the breakdown of the marriage, but it didn't help.
“I think we've someone counted up the other day, probably I've had over six hundred falls in my career, so ... You ha you you just hope for the luck.”
“My father put me on a donkey one day... and the donkey rushed off across the field and I was hanging on to him and eventually fell off. ... I think my father came up to me, so the story goes, and expected me to be in floods of tears, and no, I had a big smile on my face and got up and went, Daddy, I fall off like a jockey and I think I've been doing it ever since.”
“It's the jockey who makes the least mistakes, rides the most winners.”