Grand National hero Ryan Mania all smiles after getting back in the saddle

He is – and more than these racing legends realise. Just a year after making a surprising comeback to the sport, the 31-year-old has rarely been happier.

While expectations were modest after Mania, victorious in the 2013 Grand National on the Smith-trained Auroras Encore, spent four years away from the sport, his personal contentment matters as much as every winner.

His 106 rides between last November and the Covid lockdown in March led to 21 victories, including a heart-stopping win at Carlisle on Seeyouatmidnight, who was a standard-bearer for Mania before he hung up his boots in late 2014.

Proof that he could get himself into the physical and mental shape required to excel, 90 rides since racing’s resumption have yielded nine wins, more contacts and the certainty that his return was the right decision.

While most of his wins, like the veteran Seeyouatmidnight, have come for canny Scottish Borders trainer Sandy Thomson, Mania’s stepfather-in-law, the support of the Smiths clearly matters.

Honoured to be invited back after leaving them without a stable jockey when he quit, citing weight difficulties, he partnered their enigmatic staying chaser Vintage Clouds at the Cheltenham Festival and would have ridden the grey in the Grand National before coronarivus intervened.

He partnered the horse at Aintree last month and could ride the grey in a veterans’ chase at Warwick next week, while he dovetails with No 1 jockey Danny Cook, who is sidelined with facial injuries suffered in a horror fall at Market Rasen. Like Mania, he is treated as ‘family’ by the Smiths.

“I couldn’t be happier with how it has gone,” Mania told The Yorkshire Post ahead of Wetherby’s meeting today. “It’s gone far better than what I expected. I didn’t have any expectations, to be honest with you, but I didn’t expect it go as well as it has. First and foremost, it is down to the support of Sandy (Thomson) and everyone I have been riding for.

“I have been lucky to get back on good horses. In myself, I am fitter and stronger than I have ever been. Mentally, everything is great and it’s all come together at the same time.”

Mania has always been a gifted horseman – this was clear when his very first National ride was a winning one when 66-1 outsider Auroras Encore won the ultimate steeplechase. But it is the rest of his outlook that has matured with the passage of time. He says he has learned “how to manage” his diet so he can eat healthily and ride. Before, extreme measures were required. “I got a bit heavier during lockdown. It’s not putting it (weight) on; it’s managing myself to get it back when I want.”

He is also more level-headed. Mania did not get above himself after riding an eye-catching treble at Kelso last Saturday – the first of his comeback. Before, he might have celebrated exuberantly – and then left himself facing an agonising battle with the scales.

Conversely, he tried not to be too disheartened when four fancied rides at Carlisle 48 hours later did not yield a solitary success.

“I still left the races with a smile on my face and I went home to my family with a different outlook,” said the jockey who accepts that there are never any certainties. “I don’t stress about racing. If I had a bad day in the past, I’d wonder if anybody would give me rides. Now, it’s not that I don’t care, but I am more relaxed about it.”

This explains Mania’s demeanour after riding out for the Smiths at their stables on Baildon Moor. “It’s brilliant just to have an association with Craiglands (Farm) and for them to give me rides and support me,” says the jockey, whose daughter Aurora is named after his winning National horse.

“On the day when my weight, and everything, got too much for me, and I retired, Sue and Harvey said to me that the door would always be open if I ever decided to return.

“You take things like that for granted – they probably didn’t expect me to back and I certainly didn’t expect to be back – but they have been absolutely true to their word and they are the most genuine, and loyal, people in racing.”

The “complete highlight” was the Cheltenham Festival ride on Vintage Clouds, who jumped with aplomb before his heavy weight took its toll – and then to be asked by owner Trevor Hemmings to partner the horse at Aintree.

Though Covid intervened, Mania stresses: “Words can’t really describe what that meant to me, to have their (Smiths) backing and the backing of Mr Hemmings.”

Two high-profile acquisitions to the Thomson team from the all-conquering Willie Mullins yard in Ireland add to his anticipation. Former Irish Gold Cup winner Bellshill, now co-owned by golfer Lee Westwood and businessman David Armstrong, heads to Haydock’s Grade One Betfair Chase next Saturday.

“Bellshill is an unbelievable animal and we’re looking forward to seeing what he does on the track,” said the jockey.

Yorkhill, a 2017 Cheltenham Festival winner also running in the colours of Westwood and Armstrong, could head to Newcastle’s Rehearsal Chase later this month – another significant target as Mania builds his portfolio with longstanding agent Bruce Jeffrey.

“When I first came back, it was quite steady,” he continued.

“Now we are in the swing of things, I am exhausted from the travelling and riding – but in a good way.

“I’m driving down to Sue’s and I’m here, there and everywhere. It is exhausting but I am absolutely loving it. I’m really, really loving being back – and long it may it continue.

“When I’m in the car, I’m smiling at the thought of the horses to ride and people to ride for. I’m smiling now.”

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