AS THE annual season of awards and back-slapping ceremonies comes to a close, one man’s achievements had to be celebrated with restraint.
When the years turned James Reveley officially became champion jump jockey of France.
It was a moment of fulfilment that could have had the 27-year-old Yorkshireman jumping for joy but a broken left foot means he will not be jumping anywhere for a while.
“It’s on the recovery,” he said. “I’ve got two pins in the foot; apparently I broke quite a few bones in the middle of the foot. Device, the horse who I fell on, rolled on both my feet – I think the stirrup on my saddle must have rolled on my foot and that’s what did the damage. So we’re looking at getting back in mid-February for the first Auteuil meeting.”
Up until that fall at Auteuil in November, Device had been one of the stars of Reveley’s season along with So French the horse on whom he won the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris, France’s most prestigious jumps race.
Nine years ago Reveley was a conditional jockey with Nicky Richards when he went to Guillaume Macaire, France’s champion jumps trainer, for a three-week working holiday. “I was lucky enough to get a couple of rides and one of them won. I came back to England and he rang me up saying he needed a conditional. I spent the rest of the summer there and it’s gone from there.”
Reveley used to divide his time between Britain and France but made a full-time commitment when Vincent Cheminaud left Macaire to ride on the Flat for Andre Fabre.
“It’s been the biggest changing point for me because he would have ridden So French and Device and a lot of the other horses,” Reveley said. “There’s not really a first, second, third jockey. Macaire tends to give you the horses he thinks will suit your riding style the best – that’s why he’s such a good trainer.”
Some might think Reveley would jump at the chance to return to British racing but he is not so sure. His 84 winners earned €3,745,000 (about £3,195,729) while Richard Johnson’s 235 winners that took him to the British title accrued £2,339,364. And that is a big difference in any language.
“It would take one of the big jobs to make me leave what I’ve got,” Reveley said. “Never say never but, at the minute, it’s a no-brainer. I had between four and five hundred rides and he must have had getting on for a thousand. So it just shows how much better the prizemoney is.”
Even that level of reward has not prevented many horses being sold on in Britain but Reveley said: “Some of the owners can’t refuse the money they’re getting offered. It’s crazy money and I’d be the same if I was an owner but luckily we have some top owners who want to keep their best horses.”
Convincing Reveley to join that exodus would be some achievement indeed.
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