MARCUS TOWNEND: Ordinary Joe Fanning is no ordinary jockey… but Irish star is at his happiest away from the limelight after Ayr Gold Cup triumph

• Joe Fanning won the Ayr Gold Cup on Significantly last weekend 
• Fanning is a year older than Frankie Dettori, who will retire at the end of 2023
• Fanning is now the seventh most successful British Flat jockey  

The spotlight all season has, inevitably, been on a 52-year-old who is due to retire at the end of the year, but it was a jockey who is a year older than Frankie Dettori who stole the limelight last weekend.

Joe Fanning grabbed a last-ditch win on Significantly in the Ayr Gold Cup, then hit an appropriately significant milestone later in the afternoon thanks to his success on Charlie Johnston’s Capital Theory.

It was the 2,811th victory of Fanning’s career and moved him past Joe Mercer and into seventh on the list of most successful British Flat jockeys.

The names above Fanning are a who’s who of the weighing room — Sir Gordon Richards, Pat Eddery, Lester Piggott, Willie Carson, Doug Smith and Dettori. Fanning is the most successful Flat jockey never to have been crowned champion.

Most of his wins have been achieved at meetings on the northern circuit away from the limelight.

Joe Fanning grabbed a last-ditch win on Significantly in the Ayr Gold Cup

It was the 2,811th victory of Fanning’s career and moved him past Joe Mercer and into seventh on the list of most successful British Flat jockeys

Dettori’s feats have made him well-known outside the sport but Fanning’s profile is so low it is almost underground and that’s how he likes it.

When I interviewed him in 2019, the Dublin-born rider brought up in County Wicklow said: ‘I’m not on Twitter or Facebook or anything like that. I don’t push my profile but I am happy enough with the way things have gone in my career.

‘I just truck along. I don’t feel comfortable in the limelight. I just don’t like fuss.’

Fanning spent most of last year on the sidelines after sustaining a double fracture in his left shoulder at Musselburgh which put him out for seven months. 

He only returned to the saddle in February but Mr Consistency has still had 72 winners this year, even though his number is way down on the high of 2013 when he had 156 winners.

Fanning is literally an ordinary Joe, who is level and unfailingly polite. He will never walk past you without saying a cheery hello.

The last time I saw him was on the Sunday of Doncaster’s St Leger meeting.

He drove by as I was walking back to my car and there was a wave and a smile.

That’s what makes it easy to admire what Fanning has achieved and be so pleased for him.

Beckett and Crowley square off in Paris 

Trainer Ralph Beckett and jockey Jim Crowley will be rivals in Sunday’s Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe with the former hoping for a big run from Westover and the latter riding second favourite Hukum.

But they were allies last weekend when Crowley enjoyed a welcome win on Beckett’s City Burglar at Ayr.

Winners have been in short supply since he won the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes on Hukum at Ascot at the end of July.

A 20-day ban under the whip rules incurred in the King George didn’t help Crowley’s cause — he missed York’s Ebor meeting where regular mount Mostahdaf won the Juddmonte International Stakes under Frankie Dettori. But going into Ayr, Crowley’s losing run was close to 50 rides. 

The amount it matters about a jockey being ‘in form’ is debatable, but, just like a striker on a goalless run or a cricketer with a string of low scores, you’ve got to be a pretty resilient character not to have your confidence dented slightly.

Crowley will no doubt be pleased, and relieved, to be back in the winner’s enclosure ahead of a massive week.

Shishkin’s dressage diversion

There will be an interested observer when Nicky Henderson-trained Shishkin runs in some of the big staying chases this season. 

At his owners’ day on Sunday, the Lambourn trainer revealed that the nine-year-old had spent a month with Zara Tindall doing dressage to build up core strength and give a gelding who can get bored easily a change of scenery.

Shishkin’s switch from two-mile chaser to a contender in steeplechases over three miles and further was complete last season when he stayed on with purpose to beat Ahoy Senor in the Aintree Bowl Chase. 

His first big target is the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day after a possible prep run in either Wetherby’s Charlie Hall Chase or Haydock’s Betfair Chase.

Champion trainer Nicky Henderson revealed Shishkin (above) spent a month with Zara Tindall doing dressage to build up core strength

Twinge of nostalgia at Jarvis exit

When trainer William Jarvis announced his retirement at the weekend, it was hard for racing fans of a certain age not to feel a twinge of nostalgia.

Jarvis followed his father Ryan, who was successful in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, into the sport having learned the ropes under Sir Henry Cecil during a glittering time when the stable’s horses included the great miler Kris.

Jarvis never won a British Classic but he went agonisingly close when the Frankie Dettori-ridden Grand Lodge, the previous season’s champion two-year-old, was beaten a short head by Mister Baileys in the 2,000 Guineas of 1994.

Compensation awaited when Grand Lodge, now ridden by Mick Kinane, won the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot in the silks of Lord Howard de Walden.

In a 38-year career, Jarvis trained over 700 winners. They have been in shorter supply in recent years but there was a final Group One success for Jarvis when the mare Lady Bowthorpe won the 2021 Nassau Stakes, prompting some emotional scenes at Glorious Goodwood.

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