Champion jockey ambition still burns brightly for Marquand

But William Buick expected to set the bar high again in title defence.

Uphill be damned. He knows it will be a mountainous task, possibly harder even than last year.

Yet Tom Marquand confesses he will relish the challenge.

Oisin Murphy, who was deposed by William Buick as champion jockey last term – a title he held for three successive seasons before that – returns next month following a 14-month ban.

Buick, who went so close the year before and arguably should have been top dog, has now gnawed that tasty bone and is salivating for another.

But that combination of great physical strength and a highly developed will to win, which has become his hallmark, ensures genial young pup Marquand will again be in the argument. It can only be a matter of time. So why not this year?

“Champion jockey has to be in the back of your mind,” said the 24-year-old, who has partnered over 100 winners in each of his last five years, including a whopping 176 turf and all-weather tally in 2021.

Last year the accent was more on quality. He rode three Group One winners and finished third in the title race, level with his wife Hollie Doyle on 91 wins having ridden more horses, and enjoyed a total of 127 victories overall.

For clarity, the Flat Jockeys’ Championship has operated on a reduced timescale since 2015 – and spans just 24 weeks from the start of the Guineas Meeting at Newmarket to British Champions Day at Ascot.

Changing the narrative from a 32-week window at the start of the turf season, on Lincoln Handicap Day, to the end on November Handicap Day, has confused die-hard traditional ‘turfistes’.

The change was made to make it potentially enticing to top jockeys, some of whom are simply not interested in chasing low-grade winners at far-flung places at the start and end of the season.

Marquand is different. Refreshingly bereft of aloofness, he is more than happy to face an icy midwinter blast and ride 0-60-rated performers at all-weather tracks if it means he quenches his thirst for winners.

If comparisons can be such a thing, then he is Flat racing’s equivalent of Richard Johnson. Rarely in this demanding sport have there been two more likeable, humble, honest and thoroughly wonderful exponents of the art of jockeyship.

Johnson, of course, was a supremely talented jump jockey, the finest of horseman cursed to have been the contemporary of the most relentless and gifted practitioner in the sport’s history.

Marquand hopes he will not have the misfortune to be condemned to the Buick or Murphy era, as Johnson was with AP McCoy.

“Once you are riding that amount of winners per year or per season, champion jockey is something that you are always going to want to try to go down with when you are done,” added Marquand.

Champion jockey William Buick has Marquand's respect
Champion jockey William Buick has Marquand’s respect (John Walton/PA)

“So definitely champion jockey is something I’d like to do. It will be hard, but Will, to be honest, was insane last year.

“It was incredible what he did. He literally gapped us straight away.

“Before that, in the previous two years, I was in the hunt until mid-August and then they stretched away. I was always within 10 or 15 winners, but last year it was game over early.”

The odds are against it, this season at least. Sky Bet offer 14-1 for Marquand, who was champion apprentice in 2015, to take the title.

He has the utmost respect for the 1-2 favourite, however, insisting 34-year-old Buick will be tough to stop as he goes for his second crown.

“To be fair to Will, he is Godolphin’s stable jockey – he doesn’t need to do it (go everywhere and ride everything). But it is something he wants to do and he has just shown he can drop his head and run, and do everything right,” added the Classic-winning rider.

Sea La Rosa provided Marquand with one of his three top-class victories last year
Sea La Rosa provided Marquand with one of his three top-class victories last year (Steven Paston/PA)

“Take a kid like (apprentice) Billy Loughnane, who is just starting out. You just go, ‘This is William Buick. This is what he does’, and he is never going to see anything that he shouldn’t do. He sets the example.”

Marquand admits he gets on well with the Norwegian-born rider, yet treats him with a due deference accorded to senior jockeys.

“I probably didn’t have too much to do with Will until a couple of years ago when we started travelling a bit, going to Hong Kong and stuff. He is probably that generation above me a little bit. You’ve got him, James Doyle, that crowd,” said Marquand.

“There are now two rows below me already – and I’m still only 24. You have Billy as one of the youngest ones, then you have Benoit (de la Sayette) and Harry Davies just below. It moves on quick.

Wolverhampton Races – Thursday 19th January 2023
Apprentice Billy Loughnane (right) has good examples to follow (Simon Marper/PA)

“But Will has always been that bracket above. It is a generational thing, even though in racing there are many generations within the weighing room.”

Disarmingly grounded, still conveying a sheen of wonderment at his good fortune to be in high demand, while enjoying plum rides for William Haggas, Roger Varian and other top yards, Marquand is fully aware of the grind and high standards required to reach his goal. Buick sets an increasingly high bar.

“Everybody in the weighing room has tremendous respect for Will,” Marquand added.

“I am one of the first ones to want to beat him, but you just commend people for their hard work when they do it that way.”

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