Winston bidding for jockey title (From Gazette & Herald)

Winston bidding for jockey title

What odds a local champion jockey this year? According to the bookmakers, it's a mere 4-1 that Robert Winston will clinch the title and knock Frankie Dettori off his throne.

Winston, Britain's champion apprentice in 1999 when he was attached to the Ryedale stable of Richard Fahey, lives in York and rides largely as a freelance these days. But with strong links to Sir Michael Stoute's Newmarket yard, and also the Howard Johnson stable, for whom he rode a winner at Royal Ascot at York recently, plus a whole host of other trainers clamouring for his services, he is amassing a potentially vintage tally of winners.

By the beginning of this week, Winston was on the 58-winner mark, level with Jamie Spencer at the head of the table, and was no fewer than 14 ahead of Dettori, the reigning champion.

Winston, who gained his maiden century last season, a campaign, which also heralded his first Group One win, has been in dynamic form, particularly in recent weeks, with a brace of four-timers, the first at Catterick and another last Thursday, when he rode three winners at Newcastle in the afternoon and another at Hamilton in the evening, all for different trainers.

Winston's winning spree continued into the weekend and beyond. At Newcastle on Friday night, he won on Sentiero Rosso - the second leg of a double at the meeting for in-form Norton trainer Brian Ellison, also successful with Mister Arjay in the amateur riders' race - while on Saturday, he won the sprint handicap at Gosforth Park on the David Barker-trained Sierra Vista before journeying on to Doncaster's evening meeting to score on Ice Diamond for David Nicholls.

Not content with resting on his laurels, Winston took in Sunday's meeting at Windsor and, far from showing any ill-effects from yet another hectic week, he rode a masterly race to gain a narrow success on Front Stage for Sir Michael Stoute.

The upshot is that Winston is now being seriously considered as a major contender for this year's jockeys' championship. His current 4-1 odds with Ladbrokes is a mere fraction of the price he was at the start of the season, when he ranked among the 25-1 outsiders, and even last month, he was still available at 14-1.

Ladbrokes still have Dettori, who has the massive firepower of Godolphin behind him, as their 11-10 favourite, with Spencer a 5-2 chance. But plenty believe that Winston is in with a real shout of becoming the first local champion since Kevin Darley clinched the coveted crown in 2000.

"Things are going great," says Winston, who is travelling anywhere and everywhere in search of winners. "The main thing is to keep the momentum going. I am getting great support from trainers and I just want to keep my head down and ride as many winners as I can."

This weekend, Winston will be wearing the colours of Her Majesty the Queen. He has been booked by Stoute to partner Promotion, a creditable fifth on his latest start at Royal Ascot at York, in the Old Newton Cup at Haydock on Saturday.

Installed the 5-1 favourite, Promotion is a horse Winston knows plenty about. Last summer, he beat the Royal runner into second in a tight finish on Knavesmire when winning the John Smith's Cup on Arcalis.

Obviously the Queen has no hard feelings. By Royal appointment, Robert Winston sees opportunity knocking on Saturday to bring Promotion home to a memorable victory - and also to promote his chances of being this season's champion jockey.

Not allowing Robert Winston all his own way, Kevin Darley is another jockey going great guns. The Sheriff Hutton rider, fresh from his two winners at Royal Ascot at York, gained a fluent Group Three success at Newcastle last Saturday on the exciting Soldier's Tale, and followed up with three winners on Monday.

Darley won on Emerald Storm for his boss Mark Johnston at Pontefract in the afternoon and followed up with two more at Musselburgh in the evening - the odds-on Luberon, also trained by Johnston, and Fantasy Defender, trained by John Quinn, on whom he got home in the final strides to notch a thrilling victory.

Paul Hanagan is set to spend a week on the sidelines from this Saturday, following an incident at Beverley last week when he was found guilty of striking fellow Ryedale jockey Dean Mernagh with his whip.

Although both jockeys involved in the incident denied anything untoward took place, the stewards took a different view and found Hanagan guilty of improper riding in that he had purposefully struck Mernagh with his whip just after crossing the line.

Although that was how it looked, Hanagan said he was merely correcting his mount, fourth-placed Island Odyssey, who had finished just behind Blushing Hilary, after the two horses had raced side-by-side throughout the final two furlongs.

"My filly was ducking to her left after the line, maybe looking at the exit-gate, and I pulled my whip through to correct her and caught Dean with it," said Hanagan.

Mernagh was saying pretty much the same. "Paul's horse was hanging out and when he went to give her a belt, he caught me on the shoulder. There was no malice towards me. It was accidental."

Accidental or not, the stewards didn't think so, and Hanagan will be conspicuous by his absence for seven days as a result.

Tim Easterby has his horses in rude health at present and the Great Habton trainer continues to fire in winners left, right and centre.

Among his latest success stories, Malcheek, victorious at Thirsk last Thursday, was particularly satisfying. Following up his previous maiden race on the same course, Malcheek readily defied top weight in his first handicap and is beginning to look a proper racehorse, having previously jeopardised his career by his aversion to the starting stalls.

A lot of hard work and patience has gone into getting him on the right track and Malcheek is now justifiably rewarding his connections.

Dave Allan, who rode a front-running race on Malcheek, adopted totally different tactics at Doncaster on Saturday night when coming from last to first on Most Definitely, and relying only on hands-and-heels riding.

"He's a horse you can't hit - he doesn't go for the whip - and Dave gave him a great ride," said Keith Stone, a former trainer and now Easterby's assistant.

A change of tactics worked the oracle for Qualitair Pleasure at Market Rasen last weekend when the Norton mare resumed her winning ways with an 11-1 success.

Trained by James Hetherton for Norton-born Peter Bottomley's Qualitair Holdings company, the home-bred five-year-old gained a two lengths verdict in the handicap hurdle after being held up for a late run by jockey Keith Mercer.

"We had been having her ridden prominently and decided that more patient tactics might suit her better, which they seemed to do," said Hetherton, adding, "I've got three horses for Peter and all of them have now won this season."

Mick Easterby, who is in York District Hospital, received the best possible tonic on Monday with winners at two different meetings.

The Sheriff Hutton trainer, who is suffering from pneumonia, was responsible of Wahchi, well ridden by Serena Brotherton to clinch the ladies' handicap at Pontefract, and also We'll Meet Again, a head winner under Terry Lucas at Wolverhampton.

Easterby, who was admitted to hospital last weekend, is making steady progress. He will, hopefully, be back on the racecourse very shortly, as it's hardly the same without him. We wish him the speediest recovery.

Updated: 14:19 Wednesday, June 29, 2005