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Callum Pritchard cannot help but smile as he homes in on the novice men’s championship, sponsored by Highflyer Bloodstock.
This article first appeared in the Racing Post on Friday 12th May.
“Keep a straight face for this one,” I suggested while trying to snap a few pictures of him in the paddock at a recent meeting. “I can’t,” he said, “I’m too happy.”
Pritchard, who works for Philip Hobbs and Johnson White, has risen in little more than a month from obscurity to the fringe of a title race won in recent years by such erstwhile pro jockeys as Sean and James Bowen, Harry Cobden, Connor Brace and Jack Tudor. Cobden is the odd one out in that group, for he is English and the others Welsh, and Pritchard, who grew up near Cardiff, is another with Wales in his heart.
However, while his predecessors won titles in their teens on horses provided by parents or immediate family, Pritchard had no family links to the sport and is aged 22.
He says: “I didn’t really like horses until I was 14. There was a yard behind our house and one Friday evening I went there to sit on a horse for a laugh. The next day the owner took me hunting, but because I couldn’t ride, I was put with the whipper-in [who rode alone away from the mounted field].”
The bug had bitten, and when Pritchard left school he went into hunt service, joining packs in Carmarthenshire, Gloucestershire and Northumberland. Through that journey he was joined by his partner Hannah Jones, sister of jockey Ben and daughter of Dai, clerk of the course at Ffos Las.
Pritchard says: “While we were in Northumberland, Hannah got a horse [ex-chaser Purcell’s Bridge] and I decided to ride him in a point-to-point. He looked after me and we picked up a couple of places. I enjoyed it and decided to go into racing, so contacted Ben [who is also based with Hobbs and Johnson] and he organised a job for me. I started work there in August.”
A couple of rides early this season on pointers trained by Ben’s wife Laura got him going in the south, and while he did not gain his first win until the middle of last month, another six have followed in rapid time. With four days of racing until the season’s end he is two clear of Chad Bament, and three ahead of Tom Easterby, Keagan Kirkby and Osian Radford.
“Every winner feels special,” says Pritchard, “and so is the support I’ve been given by so many people. [Trainer/rider] Josh Newman has been key in all that, giving advice and helping with contacts and rides. I wouldn’t be where I am without his help.”
