Super gymnast jockey “Frankie” (his mum was a trapeze artist) recently celebrated his 3000th domestic winner. It is a remarkable achievement especially as many in the sport had practically written him off after some unfortuante personal and professional "blunders". In 2013 he rode only 16 winners, but "you can't keep a good man (or woman) down" and it was not long before we saw the ever jovial, Latin prankster doing his flying dismounts – celebrating more top end victories. I sent Frankie a txt message when he past this latest landmark, saying "see you rode that 3000th winner then, George says what took you so long".
Seriously though? It was a truly great achievement especially when you consider how many hundreds of thousands of jockey’s British flat racing has seen throughout its long history. It is an incredible achievement for any jockey to reach the top twenty and Frankie is currently sitting in 6th position, Joe Fanning is in 18th place and both jockeys are the only riders on the list still riding today. The rest are are either no longer with us or, like George who is 12th on the list of most successful flat jockeys of all time, are enjoying retirement, although I don't think anyone can seriously call George "retired" he reckons he works harder now than he ever did when he was riding.
The other important "George" on the yard "George Dryden" ran a blinder yesterday in Ripon's big race "The Great St. Wilfred" finishing fifth and staying on well when beaten just over one length, it was his best performance this season having given lumps of weight away to all bar one of the four runnners who finished in front of him. "Letbygonesbeicons" proved he is on a reasonable mark - finally and confirming he can win on the tapeta surface at Newcastle having just missed out on victory when not given a clear run on Friday.
At home we have been as busy as usual with a few promising two year olds lined up for this week and sorting out new logo's for both of our horse boxes. I had previously allowed some company logos to be put on the lorry's - purely as a "gesture of goodwill" for an owner and we are currently in the process of organising replacements - also freebies, this time AJ was quick to put in his "request" for a bit of free advertising - care of mum.