First past the post in the North

Paul Hanagan is rarely animated. His calm, unflustered demeanour is one reason he has become one of the racing stories of 2010. Impeccably polite, the previously unheralded horseman hopes, today, to become only the third Northern-based rider to win the jockeys' championship in 105 years.

It will see the unassuming father-of-two join a very exclusive club – Elijah Wheatley and, more recently, Kevin Darley, are the only other members – if he holds off the late title challenge of Classic-winning jockey Richard Hughes.

Yet, a year ago, Hanagan was adamant that the title race was an impossible dream as he reflected on a then career-best season which saw him record a century of winners for the first time.

Could he become champion?

"I'm not sure that it can be done," he pondered as his achievements were celebrated at the annual Go Racing in Yorkshire luncheon.

"I'll have to settle for being Cock o' the North!" added Hanagan as he donned the black town crier's hat, with gold trim, that is presented annually to the North's winning-most rider.

It is a racing tradition that has continued through the decades, though the actual term can be traced back to the period of Alexander Gordon, the Scottish nobleman who became the 4th Duke of Gordon in 1752. He was also known as the Cock o' the North, the epithet attached to the chief of the Gordon clan in Scotland.

With such a preponderance of racing in the South – despite the unrivalled quality and unique riding challenges posed by Yorkshire's eight Flat tracks – it has been incredibly difficult for Northern riders to mount a sustained challenge in the jockeys' title race until Hanagan's incredible campaign this year. Was it a one-off – or can the Malton rider be a multiple champion?

No-one knows, not even Hanagan. The only certainty in horse racing is its glorious uncertainty.

It is why the Yorkshire Post will be backing next year's Cock o' the North as part of Racing for Change's drive to re-invigorate the sport and its profile.

For, while Hanagan's trailblazing 2010 has also seen him win a first Group One race aboard the prodigious Wootton Bassett, one of the favourites for next year's 2000 Guineas, he's the first to admit that it has not been easy.

The standard of riding in these parts, he contends, has never been greater – and that he'll have a race on his hands to remain Cock o' the North, a competition open to any rider who lives to the north of the river Trent.

As his trainer Richard Fahey observed recently: "Paul has set standards for others to follow – riders will want to be the next Paul Hanagan." It is a point that is not lost on Edward Hide, the former Derby-winning jockey who won the Cock o' the North a mere 16 times between 1957 and 1983.

"It matters," says the rider who recorded 2,591 career winners. "It meant that you had a good year and the jockeys normally put on a big party to celebrate. This was our championship in effect."

Hide, who grew up in Shropshire, was 13 when he had his first ride in 1950 during the school summer holidays. Standing a little under four feet six inches tall, he weighed little more than four stone.

By then, one Lester Piggott – later to become a great rival – had already ridden his first winner two years previously at the age of 12.

The phenomenal Piggott was a one-off from the moment that he rode. Hide's progress was more measured. His first ride saw him finish last on Copper Mare at the then Birmingham racecourse. It was an inauspicious start.

He had to wait a year for his first winner – before becoming champion apprentice in 1954. Two years later saw a turning point in Hide's career and the retirement of Bill Nevett, the Middleham rider and perennial Cock o' the North who had won three Derbies and was ninth on the all-time list of winners, paved the way for the opportunities to come the way of the young rider.

"He was very strong and made horses run – he had a similar style to Sir Gordon Richards," recalled Hide.

"I hoped at the time that I might one day win the title of Cock o' the North that had been his for so long, but I didn't expect it to happen as soon as it did."

That 1957 season began memorably when Hide won the Lincoln on Lord's Babur. The traditional curtain-raiser to the Flat season was then run at Lincoln racecourse before its closure seven years later. The season included a four-timer at Thirsk (Hide was leading the title race at that point) before he was eventually overhauled by the great Australian Derby-winning jockey Scobie Beasley. He only once bettered his final total of 131 winners in 1974 when Hide narrowly lost out to Pat Eddery and Piggott in a thrilling title race.

Hide's longevity, he says, was, in part, to the influence of the talismanic Sir Gordon Richards – the nation's favourite jockey who advocated winter breaks in Switzerland's re-invigorating winter climes (Hanagan, by contrast, intends to recuperate in the Seychelles after clocking up around 100,000 miles on the roads this year in the search of winners).

Richards, who won the Coronation year Derby of 1953, was Hide's hero – and his unrivalled dominance, at a time when there were far fewer meetings, will probably make Paul Hanagan wince as his final haul of winners will fall short of the 200 mark. "About this time, Gordon Richards phoned me early one Sunday morning. It took me a while to answer as I was still in bed," recalled Hide. "Sensing this, Gordon rebuked me with this line, 'Edward, many a good man has died in bed'. Since I was a small boy, I had admired him and dreamed of competing against him. It was partly the fact that he was a Shropshire lad like me, and partly that he was uniquely successful. Even today, with the advantage of air travel making it possible for jockeys to ride at two meetings a day, no rider has been able consistently to break, or even make, the 200 mark season after season as Gordon did. His record made him an idol."

It is why one of Hide's fondest memories was when he beat his hero as a 16-year-old. "He was all action – everything was going, arms, legs, the lot."

His finest hour, however, came in 1973 when he won the Epsom Derby aboard Morston, one of the winners that contributed to a ninth Cock o' the North. The recipient of a winning spare ride, after Frankie Durr turned down the opportunity to ride the Arthur Budgett-trained horse, Hide had not even sat on Morston before the Derby, a race that attracted a crowd in excess of 250,000.

His travel arrangements were also rudimentary. "I travelled to Epsom by train from York. Carrying a holdall containing my saddle, helmet and boots, I boarded the bus from Epsom Downs station to the course. You wouldn't do it today, would you?

"It would have been quicker to walk... I saw Morston for the first time as I walked into the paddock. He was a fine, big chestnut colt who took everything very calmly. If I recall, it was my 13th Derby – and he was number 13 on the racecard. A lucky omen?"

It was; Morston eventually prevailing by half a length from Cave Doro whose jockey, the aforementioned Piggott, was the first to offer his congratulations.

"I felt myself beginning to be overcome by the knowledge of what had just taken place. In order to return to the unsaddling enclosure before the tears of joy ran down my face, I did my best to think of anything but the fact that my ultimate dream had just come true," recalled Hide. "It is difficult to put into words the elation I felt at the time – it was of course, simply the pinnacle of my career.

"I travelled back to Yorkshire with Frank Carr, the Malton trainer – we arrived back in York just in time to see a rerun of the race in the Royal York Hotel. There was a great welcome back in Malton – my children had put up a banner which said, 'Welcome home, dad'."

Hide, who retired in 1985, keeps fit by playing golf and tennis. It's a far cry from his perennial battle with the scales, trying to lose weight in the sauna after a morning meal consisting of "a raw egg, bit of glucose, milk and a tot of sherry, beaten together with some ice".

He added: "Over 16 years, I took off an average of 18 stone between March and November each year – Paul Hanagan's lucky that he has no such weight worries, he's fortunate."

Another leveller is communication. In Hide's era, he had to telephone trainers at night to secure rides. He also had to contend with L Piggott looking to get on the best horses. Today, jockeys have agents – and mobile phones.

"It makes a difference." Unlike Hanagan who is desperate to win a first Classic and has had so few chances in such races because he's perceived, inaccurately, to be a journeyman jockey rather than a big-race rider, Hide is reflective when asked whether he would swap his Derby for a jockeys' title. "I wouldn't like to say."

His Cock o' the North dominance was then followed by the enduring Mark Birch, the seven-time winner when stable jockey to Peter Easterby, and then Kevin Darley, a 10-time winner of the award. Darley, champion jockey in 2000 when the prized title last returned to Yorkshire, has no doubts when asked if he'd trade his crown for, say, an Epsom Derby.

"Once you've won a championship, you can't have it taken away," says the 50-year-old who lives near Ripon and is chief executive of the Professional Jockeys' Association. "Three or four years later, I was riding down to the start at Doncaster. Mike Cattermole, now with Channel Four, was commentating, and I heard him say that 'Kevin Darley, the former champion jockey' was riding such and such. It made you feel good, likewise winning Cock o' the North – it meant you were number one."

Darley will forever be associated with his 2002 Doncaster St Leger win on Tim Easterby's Bollin Eric, and his 1,000 Guineas triumph two years later on Mark Johnston's brilliant filly Attraction.

Both were great days for Yorkshire trainers. But, equally, he says the quality of riders in the region has never been stronger – exemplified by Hanagan's seven winners on the first weekend of the 2010 Flat season at Doncaster that gave him a winning start to this unforgettable campaign.

"For him still to be there is testament to his relationship with Richard Fahey, his trainer," explains Darley. "It's not easy – there's more racing down South so Paul has had to travel a lot more. Yet you can't under-estimate his success. Ryan Moore, Frankie Dettori, Seb Sanders, Richard Hughes, Jamie Spencer, Kieren Fallon – they all wanted it. This is why Paul has been such a great ambassador for the North. When he's on the right horse, he's as good as any of them."

After a recent all-weather meeting at Kempton under floodlights, Hanagan's voice sounded weary. Was he on his knees with exhaustion? "Not yet – but give it a couple more weeks."

Asked about his riding plans, the father-of-two – who has snatched phone calls with his children on the way home – muddled up the days of the week. "I don't even know what day it is. The travelling, the roads, that's the hardest."

Edward Hide can sympathise – even though he did not, quite, become champion. Indeed, he never came close to riding the 1,000 plus races that took Hanagan to the brink of the championship.

"The roads have improved – but there's a lot more traffic," adds Hide. "I've met Paul and I'm impressed with him. He's a nice person but to be where he is, it's a lot more involved than being a good rider – connections have to have confidence in him." They do. A couple of days later, Hanagan is riding Zenella, an unfancied 10-1 chance at Pontefract. The Queen's Royal Exchange is the hot favourite. Lolloping along in front, Hanagan seizes the initiative on the final uphill bend, snatching a decisive two-length lead. "A phenomenal ride from the probable champion jockey," enthuses the TV commentator. It remains to be seen. The challenge by Hughes has been formidable.

Hanagan smiled. His tactics were akin to "catch me if you can". But this year's Cock o' the North was, again, the personification of modesty, refusing to bask in the personal limelight. "You can't win without the right horses."

What motivates him? "You only have to look at the riders coming through, snapping at one's heels."

It is why, says Paul Hanagan, these are exciting times for northern racing. "It's never been so competitive," says the jockey who has defied the odds to put both himself, and Yorkshire racing, on the map in a vintage year for the sport.

"Just being Cock o' the North means you've had a very good year."

THE RACE FOR GLORY

UNEXPECTED CHAMPIONS

Kevin Darley

The first northern-based jockey to win the title since 1905 when he prevailed in 2000, his cause was assisted by injuries to Kieren Fallon and Frankie Dettori. He went on to win two Classics for Yorkshire trainers.

Elijah Wheatley

Nicknamed The Whippet, he took the title in 1905 with 124 winners, while still an apprentice attached to William Elsey's yard at Baumber in Lincolnshire. After a spell at Dobson Peacock's Middleham stable, he went on to ride and train in Egypt.

UNLUCKY LOSERS

Edward Hide

Runner-up for the national title – behind Scobie Breasley in 1957, when he was the leading apprentice, the closest he came was in 1974 when his 137 winners placed him a close

third to Pat Eddery (148) and Lester Piggott (143).

Billy Nevett

The leading rider in the North for much of his career (1924-56), Billy Nevett, a longstanding Cock o' the North, was thwarted by Gordon Richards on six occasions between

1933 and 1944. The most famous of his four Classic victories was Dante – the last Yorkshire horse to win the Derby.

YP MAG 6/11/10