Royal Ascot was a golden week for Team Musley Bank. However, the yard also enjoyed plenty of success away from the Berkshire track that week. The victories of Monsieur Kodi (Carlisle) and Grifter (Beverley) shared the fact that they were both maiden successes, but more relevantly that they were both ridden by Jack Garritty. A wholesome and integral part of RF Racing by day and terrorizer of Yorkshire’s batting line-ups by twilight, here’s what we found out about the man amongst the winners…
Did you always have ambitions to be a jockey?
I didn’t really have ambitions to be a jockey until I was about fourteen/fifteen really. From an early age I was very into my cricket and rugby, so they took up a lot of my time growing up.
Do you feel fatigue in your job? For example, after you’ve ridden six horses in a row on a card, would you feel it during race seven? Or are you guys that fit that it doesn’t affect you?
Nowadays, every jockey in the weighing room is very very fit, so you’d be hard stretched to find any one of us that feels physically fatigued at the end of a card. The sport has moved on for the better in many ways and the physical condition of the jocks would be one of those.
You had an almighty 54-52 tussle with Tom Marquand for the Champion Apprentice Title in 2015. Do you look back on that time fondly, with regret, or did it all pass by in a flash?
I remember it very clearly – it went down to the final day. Unfortunately, I couldn’t close the deficit on the final day and Tom ended up winning by two in the end. It was just great to be involved in something like that to be honest. I rode some very good horses for Richard that season (33 wins for the Musley Master), enjoyed some fantastic success was an all-round exceptional learning curve for me. I’ll always look back on that time as a thoroughly enjoyable one.
What do you enjoy the most about the lifestyle of a jockey?
I think the thing I enjoy most about the job is the fact that Iget to spend time a lot of time with my mates. The weighing room is a fantastic thing to have in your life, because you’reable to develop very close relationships with the lads alongside you. That’s what life’s all about really isn’t, it…spending time with the people you get along with. It is a good and privileged life to lead in my mind.
Alongside that, I do obviously enjoy riding the horses that I’m put on, as well as thriving off the competitive side of thesport. I was brought up amongst competition and sport, so I guess I’m well suited to working within a very competitive world.
And what do you enjoy the least about the job?
The dieting is definitely not the nicest thing in the world to do. I hate it! And, being 5ft 11’’ I have to obviously keep more of an eye on things than most. You just have to learn to accept the situation, deal with it and keep looking to adapt and tweak things to suit you. I’m happy with my routine right now, so it’s simply about having the discipline to stick to it.
Why do you think the Musley Bank has had the success it has had over the years?
From what I see, I can think of a couple of reasons. Firstly, I think the way Richard and Robin treat owners both at the yard and on track is brilliant. They do everything in their power to make the owner’s experience as enjoyable as possible. The owners are then very happy to keep their horses at the yard and even go back to the sales and buy a few more.
The other is the gallop – it’s a very good stretch for any rider to ride and it does a great job at getting the horses fit. It’s a huge asset to the team.
