Jet-setting Reveley keen to do National homework

JAMES Reveley, the North Yorkshire rider attempting to become France's champion jump jockey, is leaving nothing to chance as he prepares for his fifth ride in the Crabbie's Grand National.
Jockey James Reveley pictured at his dad's racing stables at Lingdale near Saltburn. Picture : Jonathan GawthorpeJockey James Reveley pictured at his dad's racing stables at Lingdale near Saltburn. Picture : Jonathan Gawthorpe
Jockey James Reveley pictured at his dad's racing stables at Lingdale near Saltburn. Picture : Jonathan Gawthorpe

He’s flying from France to Bristol in order to school the David Pipe-trained Vieux Lion Rouge over replica Aintree obstacles today before heading back to Paris where he has a number of high-profile rides at Auteuil tomorrow.

The 27-year-old, whose knowledge of flight times comes a close second to his unnerving ability to recall form and races, then catches another flight to Liverpool in preparation for the world’s greatest steeplechase on Saturday.

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The most travelled of the 40 riders due to line up in the National – entries are confirmed this morning with Jimmy Moffatt’s Highland Lodge and former winner Pineau De Re among those likely to miss out – the fresh-faced Reveley would not have it any other way.

After all, it is a burgeoning reputation in France that secured him the ride on the Professor Caroline Tisdall and John Gent-owned Vieux Lion Rouge – Old Red Lion is the English translation.

Reveley recorded the biggest win of his career when winning last summer’s French Champion Hurdle on Un Temps Pour Tout – victorious at last month’s Cheltenham Festival – for the same owners.

They then had no hesitation booking Reveley, the youngest member of a Yorkshire racing dynasty from Saltburn, for the National once Pipe’s stable jockey Tom Scudamore opted to ride the classy chaser Ballynagour in Saturday’s big race over Vieux Lion Rouge who ran with credit in Cheltenham’s National Hunt Chase before fading into sixth.

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The concern will be whether the four and a quarter mile National trip will be too much for the seven-year-old Vieux Lion Rouge who is still classed as a novice chaser after making the successful transition to the larger obstacles at Towcester last May once the 2015-16 season had started.

Yet this is where Reveley is so skilful. While there are only a maximum of five races each year over iconic fences like Becher’s Brook and The Chair, these obstacles have become second nature to him in France where there are far more contests featuring slightly unorthodox obstacles.

“David (Pipe) rang me last week to sound me out,” Reveley told The Yorkshire Post. “He’s still a novice but I’ve watched him run and he seems to be a good jumper. He just got a bit tired at Cheltenham, but he was cruising turning for home. It’s a good ride to get.”

Reveley’s attention to detail means he will be accumulating the air miles in the coming days. “I like to know a horse,” said the jockey whose grandmother Mary was a very successful dual purpose trainer before his father Keith took over the family stables at Lingdale. “There’s only one National and it’s important to do your homework.”

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Victory would eclipse Reveley’s success last June on Un Temps Pour Tout, a fortuitous spare ride after the aforementioned Scudamore chose to ride Ballynagour who had won the Prix La Barka the previous month. Yet, while this proved one race too many for Ballynagour at the end of the long season, the pressure was off Reveley whose mount had 10 lengths in hand over the runner-up Thousand Stars.

The biggest win of his career, Le Grande Course De Haies D’Auteuil is only second in prestige to the Le Grand Steeplechase de Paris and is one reason why the Yorkshireman will spend far more time plying his trade in France this year.

Eight years after he spent a summer on work experience with top trainer Guillaume Macaire, the Willie Mullins or Paul Nicholls of French racing, he is so well regarded in France that he could challenge to become champion jockey if he stays in one piece. “If it happens, it happens but it’s going to be difficult,” he says phlegmatically.

If not, Reveley is comforted by the fact that the prize money is so advantageous that only Ruby Walsh – the winning-most rider in Cheltenham Festival history and a two-time National winner – enjoys more lucrative rides. “I’m getting plenty of opportunities and picking up some good prize money,” said the jockey whose weighing room colleagues in France could not be more envious of his National ride.

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“The main priority is being able to ride good horses. You try to make the most of it while you’re fashionable. I do like the french lifestyle. If I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t be doing it.”

As for the National, the complexion of the race has changed since 2009 when Reveley rode his father’s Rambling Minster who was pulled up after failing to take to Aintree. After completing the course for the first time last year on Night In Milan, he believes the contest now favours class horses like defending champion Many Clouds and dual King George winner Silviniaco Conti. “It’s a much better race,” he said.

It’s also, said James Reveley, the race that every jump jockey wants to win more than any other – regardless of whether they are based in England, Scotland, Ireland or France.

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