Jim Crowley rode his 100th winner of the season here on Monday and then added the 101st half an hour later to maintain his push for the Flat jockeys’ championship but he still lost ground to Silvestre de Sousa on the day as the reigning champion completed a treble on the twilight card at Wolverhampton to reduce Crowley’s lead to four.
Crowley had six rides on a low-key card at Brighton which initially brought only frustration on mounts including Buteo Bai, the 11-8 favourite for a 12-furlong handicap, who could finish only ninth of the 12 starters. He closed with an 11-1 double, however, initiated when Upstaging, the 2-1 favourite, took a six-furlong handicap before Noble Act, at 3-1, got home by a neck in the last.
De Sousa, the defending champion, was odds-on to retain the title at the beginning of September but Crowley has now ridden 19 winners in less than a fortnight. He was quoted at 66-1 to win the title as recently as late July but is now a 2-7 chance to win his first championship.
“It’s a landmark and it’s a bit harder to get to the 100 now that they’ve shortened the season so it’s nice to get there,” Crowley said after his victory on Upstaging.
“You become obsessed by it but it’s a good thing. It’s very important to me and I’m just going to do my best, which is all I can do really. We’ve still got a long way to go yet [until the Flat championship ends at Ascot on 15 October]; we’ve seen in the last couple of weeks how things can flip-flop.”
The excitement of being in the thick of a title race for the first time in his career also means that Crowley is thriving on the hard graft required to maintain his challenge. “I’m buzzing off it at the moment. I don’t feel tired at all and there’s plenty of time for a rest [once the title race is over],” he said. “All you can do is put the horse in the right position in the race and, if it’s good enough, it will win. If it doesn’t, there’s always another day, so that’s all you can do really.”
Crowley lives 25 miles from Brighton and he would have been home after his double with plenty of time to keep up with De Sousa’s progress at Wolverhampton. His obsession with the title race has its limits, however. “I think I’ll probably watch something else on the telly,” he said, “and then check the results tomorrow.”
Jockey Club Racecourses will dangle the incentive of a £1m bonus once again during this year’s National Hunt season, for the connections of a chaser that can complete its “Chasing Triple Crown” in the Betfair Chase at Haydock, the King George VI Chase at Kempton and the Cheltenham Gold Cup in March.
Last season, Cue Card took the first two legs before falling on the final circuit in the Gold Cup when still travelling well. JCR has, in effect, insured the bonus with a relatively small “bet” from its marketing budget and bookmakers believe that a successful completion of the Triple Crown is long odds-against.
Several offer prices about individual horses, including Cue Card and Coneygree, the 2015 Gold Cup winner, winning all three races but many punters may gravitate towards BetVictor, who offer 33-1 about any horse picking up the bonus.
Meanwhile, John Hunt, who had been widely tipped to be the principal commentator for ITV Racing when terrestrial racing coverage moves to its new home from Channel 4 in January, said on Monday night that he will instead remain with the BBC, where he will be able to work on a range of sports in addition to his commentary commitments for Radio Five Live.
Hunt recently worked on the swimming events at the Rio Olympics, an experience that may have been crucial in persuading him to stay with his current employer, on a new deal that will run until the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 and may also include wider opportunities for Hunt to commentate on football.
Hunt told the Racing Post on Monday evening that the BBC offered “exciting opportunities… off the back of one of the best experiences of my life in Rio”. His decision will be seen as a setback for ITV Racing, which has signed a contract to broadcast at least 34 fixtures each year on its main channel, and 60 more on ITV4.
