William Pyle: Why hard graft in 2024 makes this Yorkshire jockey one to watch in 2025

This year has seen Pyle score 13 wins for Easingwold-based trainer Craig Lidster, including four on Alfa Kellenic, as well as nine other victories for Michael Dods, Bryan Smart, Philip Kirby, Richard Fahey, Jed O’Keeffe, Katie Scott and Tracy Waggott. Through his 234 rides he has secured earnings of nearly £300,000.

The season came just three years after the first race win of his career at Beverley as an 18-year-old.

Pyle said while he grew up with jump racing and was taken to Hexham and Market Rasen racecourses, his early experiences were limited to riding show ponies his aunt had bred and occasionally being allowed to ride his father’s hunter.

He said: “I was 16 and utterly miserable at sixth-form. I wasn’t inclined to be sat in a classroom and kept stealing my father’s horse as an escape, so it occured to me there might be a way to do the horses full-time.

"I went to an open day at the National Horseracing College in Doncaster and thought this is a way better deal than sixth-form.”

He said the three-month residential foundation course was “a beginner’s guide to horseracing”, and “the best three months’ of my life before being out into the working world”.

Pyle added: “I started at Ivan Furtado’s, who was at Averham Park Stables near Southwell at the time. He was well geared for having kids from college and taught us a great deal about riding keen horses.

"It was a good grounding, because you really did have to graft for Ivan – he was a nice man but the job was hard. Everything else has seemed easier since then!

"You were chucked in at the deep end. I had my eye on an apprentice licence, so I tried to be as forward thinking as possible from the get-go. I was trying to sell myself even though at the time I had nothing to sell.”

Pyle said he managed to secure an apprentice job with Mick Easterby and learnt how to handle different types of horses were than the “safe and straightforward” ones he had grown accustomed to.

He said: “Mick’s horses were a lot sharper and took a lot more riding. He wanted us riding as many lots as possible. At one point I was riding 18 lots a day for him. He was very matter of fact about things. It was a brilliant learning curve.

"After nearly two years at Mick’s I got a job at Ed Bethell’s in Middleham. It didn’t end up being right for us. It was his second year in training and he had a lot of good horses and it was probably hard for him to give me as a seven pound claimer ride, so it felt like a freelance year. Niall Hanitty was my agent at the time and he did well to keep us tipping along.

“I did a lot of light weights in what was a tough year. The miles I was covering to do those weights was vast. I was always attracted to that side of things, trying to be the athlete and keeping myself fit.

"The demands of making weight adds another layer to that. It’s always a balancing act and at times it was hard to get that balance right.”

Pyle said he found living in Middleham difficult due to a lack of things to do apart from visit pubs when he wasn’t training.

He said: "I was riding a few for Craig Lidster and his yard was a lot closer to York so it seemed a no-brainer to move there. With Craig you know exactly where you stand. He’s very open-minded and not scared of a discussion.”

Pyle said he was particularly proud of the four class two and three winners in a season which had been kick-started with a easy win at Newcastle on Alfa Kellenic, a horse he believes is still improving.

He said: “I had a setback at the end of June when I broke my arm and that really did take a lot of wind out my sails, but Craig stood by us and I never lost a horse out of the yard there.

"It was the momentum I was building up elsewhere before that, I was third in the championship up to that point and you lose your outside rides and it’s hard to maintain that.”

When asked what advice he would give to someone wanting to follow in his footsteps, he said: “Be absolutely sure about it first and stubborn enough to think you can do it.

"You hear a lot from the top jockeys that it wouldn’t have taken much for them to have left the game at certain points in their career and I could say the same for myself. It’s important to enjoy the good days you do have because they’re not as common as you’d hope.

"You need to be a sponge and learn what you can and be selective about who you surround yourself with and hold on to the good connections you do find.”