Sherlock Holmes & the Curious Case of the Missing Champion Apprentice

Time flies.  I see that I haven't posted a chapter on this blog for two weeks, since Sunday 18th March.  I was fired up that week with Cheltenham reflections, but I must have been enjoying myself since then as the time has clearly flown.  There hasn't really been any reason for my absence.  Just busy, I suppose.  We had another (shorter) freeze-up early in those two weeks, with plenty of ice and a small amount of snow for a handful of days, and we have had the odd nice day, and one or two more which have been good in parts.  But basically it's just been rain, rain, rain,which always makes everything hard work.  (Don't be led astray by the scenes in these photographs.  They aren't representative; it's just that I generally only take photographs when the view is reasonably pleasing).

I'm pleased to say, though, that I've had a fairly quiet Easter weekend.  Well, it seems to have been quiet, even if thinking about it a bit more deeply suggests that it can't have been that quiet as yesterday was a fairly long day.  Morning stables lasted from 6.30 to 12.30 with five lots and no break in there; and then I had an evening shift on ATR in Milton Keynes from roughly 5.20 to 9.50.  And that's 55 miles from home.  So that was a fairly long day - but the nice thing is that it has seemed very pleasant.  Today has been very easy, only one lot ridden, and Friday was a delight as I snuggled up in front of the TV for the afternoon until it was time for evening stables.

It was such a shame that the weather was so grim for the big Good Friday racedays at Lingfield and Bath, with only Newcastle getting off without heavy rain.  We were luckier here in that the rain didn't arrive until mid-afternoon; and it wouldn't have affected my enjoyment of the racing anyway as I was enjoying it in my armchair courtesy of the ATR coverage.  I really enjoyed the afternoon, with great sport throughout at Lingfield ending with the heart-warming success for the Bloomsbury Stud colours, happy memories of which play a big part in all our yesterdays, in the Betway Easter Classic.

Newcastle was good with Gronkowski earning himself a place in the Kentucky Derby by winning the Listed race, even if it's very hard to see him being either good enough or seasoned enough to be competitive in the race, not least because he's never run on dirt.  I always enjoy seeing Jeremy Noseda get a good result, and it's great to think that his stable will be having a runner in the Run for the Roses.  But what gave me most pleasure on the day was Franny Norton going through the card at Bath.  Admittedly this was a card which, thanks to the dreadful weather, only contained four races, but going through the card is going through the card.

Off the top of  my head I can only think of three jockeys going through the card in the British Isles in the 20th century (Gordon Richards, Alec Russell and Frankie Dettori) and, until Franny did it at Bath on Friday, I don't think that any jockey had done it in this part of the world in the 21st century.  Franny has been a fine, ultra-reliable jockey for many years now and has been a big friend to this stable both last century and this, so that was lovely to see.  I watched all four races and it was really exciting - going into the last race, you knew that he would go through the card if he won it, and watching the race you just got the feeling that this was going to happen, even though his mount only grabbed a hard-fought victory in the dying strides.  A bit like Frankie on Fujiyaman Crest - the tide was running too strongly to be resisted.

Franny rarely gets a chance to win a race which might put his name in the record books.  I still feel bad on his behalf that he was not offered the ride on Permian, whom he had ridden to victory in the Dante, in the Derby last year, losing out when a more fashionable jockey, William Buick, came available when his retainer, Godolphin, ended up not having a runner - and I didn't buy the excuse that Godolphin actually owned Permian because it didn't, not according to the official registration anyway, unless we don't give much respect to the theory that the registered owner of the horse is meant to be the actual owner of the horse.  Hence I was delighted that, courtesy of his winners in the rain on a Bank Holiday at Bath, Franny will now have his name forever etched in racing's history books.

The one disappointment of an excellent Good Friday of racing was that Nicola seemed to receive no recognition whatsoever for being Champion Apprentice for the winter.  This is so odd because, particularly since the advent of Lingfield's Good Friday championship final day and of the 'AW Championships', there has been so much of a boost to the profile of the winter seasons.  The Champion Jockey of the winter has been a big thing, and there's even an award for winning-most  horse.  It's just so odd that there is no recognition of, or award or publicity for, the Champion Apprentice.

There was so little recognition of Nicola's achievement that the AW season ended and I still didn't know whether she was the Champion Apprentice or not.  (Even more bizarrely, neither did she; and she was still in the dark about it until I told her today, two days after the season's end).  I just hadn't seen a table anywhere, nor any mention to the subject at all.  So strange.  Fortunately, on Saturday my friend Wally Hagger posted the winter jockeys' table (as it appeared on the AW Championships website) on Facebook (or the first 25 names on it) highlighting the fact that Nicola had been the leading female rider during the AW winter season (one win ahead of Josephine).  Josephine had ridden 25 winners, Nicola 26).

This was great because it enabled me to work out who had been the leading apprentice.  (Not that there was any reference on it to apprentices).  It's a bit like being Sherlock Holmes working this out, but here goes.  The only rider above Nicola on the table who has been an apprentice in the past year was Edward Greatrex, who rode 28 winners.  I can't remember exactly when Edward rode out his claim, but I do recall that it was some time in the middle of August.  The rule is that, when an apprentice rides out his claim, he has the choice of either taking out a senior jockey's license straightaway, or continuing to ride as an apprentice for a maximum of six months (or until his current license expires in the spring, whichever comes sooner).

I don't know which option Edward chose, but the latest he could have continued to ride as an apprentice was until some time roughly three weeks into February, meaning that, even if his winners up to that point count (and I don't know that they do - it could be that he took out a senior jockey's license straightaway; I just don't know) any winners he rode in the final five, maybe six, weeks of the winter season don't count towards his total for the (apparently non-existent) apprentices' championship for the AW winter season.

And, while I haven't been keeping a tally of what winners he has ridden when, he's had more than three winners in the last five weeks.  (Just looking up Captain Lars' record on the Racing Post site, I see that he has ridden four winners on that one horse alone during that period).  Which means that Nicola has ended the winter season as the Champion Apprentice, which is a magnificent achievement for someone whose career total stood at two halfway through last year.  It's just a pity that she and I seem to be the only two people in Great Britain who know this.  Well, there's actually three of us now because I've spoken to her agent Phil Shea on the subject.  And, now that you've read this blog, you're the fourth.