JIM CROWLEY Q&A

[albrookes]

Joining us for our Q&A this week is former jump jockey turned very successful flat jockey Jim Crowley.

Attached to Ralph Beckett’s yard, Jim has ridden 81 winners this year, at the time of writing, with his most high-profile partnership being with Doncaster Cup winner Illustrious Blue.

Jim is also a Group 1-winning jockey thanks to his ride on Lord Shanakill in last year’s Prix Jean Prat.

Please post your questions for Jim below:

[phil walker]

Could you ask Jim does he miss not riding over the jumps? I thought he was excellent and it was a really a shame he moved to the flat.

[Anonymous]

Hi Jim,

Thanks for your time (hope you got rid of those blue suede shoes and didn’t get lost on your way here) some people just won’t let you forget

I have a couple of questions :-

Now, after a somewhat meteoric rise through the flat jockey ranks you seem to have a solid base with Ralph Becket.

Hopefully we will see you as champion jockey in the near future but your strike rate, due to riding a lot of lesser animals, is comparitively low this season, which can only be expected.

When you are available in future, do you intend to change your strategy and become less available to ride these spares and concentrate on trying to secure better spare rides, even if it means less ridng fees, or are you happy with the way thing are?

Q2
When you moved did you find it a bit of a changing room culture shock? With millions involved in flat racing would you decribe it as a more serious enviroment or are those flat jockeys as nutty and fun loving as the NH lads up North.

[Seven Towers]

Thanks for answering our questions Jim

My questions are – riding Quixall Crossett and winning a Group 1 which was best?

Did you ever think when you were riding round jumps tracks in the cold and rain at the beginning of your career that you would make the transition into a flat jockey?

[kittochsider]

Hi Jim,

What are the best and worst horses you have ever ridden (hopefully you won’t mention the horse you rode for me in a chase at Catterick many years ago).

I have it in the back of my mind that you once rode the great Quixall Crossett?

[albrookes]

Cheers for the questions so far guys.

Would be good to get some more – so tell your friends.

[aaronizneez]

Dear Jim

Can you fix it for me to…….

Sorry more seriously, do you have a view on the amount of racing that is currently available ? Is there too much or is it a godsend to the perceived lower ranks of jockeys regards making a living ? Is it an opportunity for some to show off their capabilities that with less racing they might not get ?

Also, what is the better feeling. Motoring along on a 5F sprinter or flying through the air on a chaser ?

And finally if there was one race that you could win what would it be ?

Cheers Jim

[Prufrock]

What do you intend to do when you hang up your whip?

What are the best and worst parts of the job?

If you could run Racing For Change what initiatives would you look to bring in?

As someone who uses sectional times, I get the impression you are one of the best judges of pace in the business. What is the secret of getting this very difficult discipline right?

Do you walk the course before racing? What are the advantages of doing so, if any?

Are there any young jockeys you think we should be looking out for?

Many thanks, Simon

[eddie case]

Hi Jim,

How do you feel about chasing around the country day after day to compete in racing with such little prize money on offer the vast majority of the time?

Thanks
Eddie

[Cav]

Hi Jim

Could you give us a rundown of what you’ll eat on a typical summers day where you’ll be riding at both an afternoon and evening meeting?

What has been the biggest improvement in a jockeys lot since you started riding and conversely what has deteriorated most?

Can you see yourself or many other jockeys doing an Alan Munro if prizemoney stays at similar levels for the foreseeable future?

With that surname, have you any Irish blood flowing through your veins?

Yourself and Ralph Beckett have a superb record with hold-up horses this season (almost 3 times better than the national average). Any specific reasons for this?

Bit of a difficult one – Could you in general terms put a percentage on the amount of rides over a season where you have to ride to orders? Would that be a similar percentage for most jockeys?

Many thanks for taking the time, Jim, wish you continued success.

All the best

Paul Fitzgerald.

[Maxilon 5]

Hi Jim, thanks for answering the forum questions.

Do you feel you’re a better jockey in the South of England?

Do you feel more confident riding on switchback/sharp tracks than on big sweeping/galloping tracks?

Best of luck.

Cheers

Max

[Anonymous]

Jim,

Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions.

You have obviously formed an excellent relationship with Ralph Beckett, but do you look for anything specific when forging a partnership of this nature? Do you simply consider the likelihood of riding winners or does the quality of the horse – or indeed the trainer himself (as both a person and a professional) – come in to the reckoning?

What motivates you to give your all, day in and day out, for a sport that doesn’t appear capable of governing itself properly or, at the very least, whose leading administrative figures seem wildly out of touch with reality? Is it merely habit now, or does winning races give you the same thrill it did when you first began riding?

If you knew a fellow jockey had been instructed to prevent a horse from winning, or that a trainer had issued such instructions, would you report it to the relevant authorities?

Thank you again for affording us your valuable time.

Tom

[yeats]

Dear Jim,

Apart from your goodself who do you you think are the top 3 flat jockeys?

Cheers
yeats

[Grey Desire]

Having read in Choc Thornton’s column in the RP about a practical joke involving Tom Messenger & Gerald Tumelty are there any particular jokers you have to be wary of in the weighing room,both on the flat currently and in the old days in the NH weighing room?
And have you been the recipient and/or instigator of any particularly fiendish pranks during your time as a jockey?

What are your thoughts on the racing in Dubai and the kind of attributes that you think a horse needs in order to race successfully over there?
One horse that you know very well (Mac Gille Eoin) has struggled this year after a spell over there,do you think it could have had an adverse effect on him?

Is there any one racecourse in the world you would like to ride at that you haven’t had chance to do so at yet?

[albrookes]

Cheers for all these guys. I’m now going to put them to Jim.

[graysonscolumn]

Hello there,

I suspect I’ve probably missed the boat with this posting, and not a problem if so. However, I was going to ask Jim whether he buys into the idea that the physical strength he was required to build up as a jump jockey has had a positive bearing (maybe even a slight advantage over his weighing room peers!) on his second career as a Flat one.

Certainly it’s an angle the likes of Nick Luck appear to have placed a lot of store in – not just in Jim’s case, but also that of Stephen J Craine and more recently Dale Swift.

I’d also have liked Jim perhaps to shed a little light on learning his trade under the tutelage of Harvey and Sue Smith. As much of a firm-but-fair education for him as it was for the likes of Richard Guest, Dominic Elsworth, etc.?

And of course, as co-editor of Quixall Crossett’s website back in the day, I’m delighted Jim’s early asociation with the losingmost legend has been raised. Jim can rightfully claim to be the man who came closest to guiding him to victory – Wetherby, Whit Bank Holiday Monday, 1998…

All the best,

Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)

Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.

[Zamorston]

If it’s not too late!

Hi Jim, big fan of yours and wish you well for the future..

If you could pick one horse from the last decade flat or NH that you would have loved to have ridden what would it be?

When you first had thoughts of becoming a jockey what was the ultimate dream for you? Riding the winner of the National, Gold Cup, Derby, something else?

Including all aspects of your job, what would you say your average hours worked in a week is?

Thanks a lot.

John

[Author]

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