Praise indeed

Shortly after he became champion apprentice, when he was launching the next stage of his career from Mick Channon’s stables back in 2001, the lads nicknamed Chris Catlin the ‘Cat’. His surname helped but so did the fact that the pale-faced, dark-eyed jockey moves quietly about the place. His unobtrusive style hasn’t changed. You simply couldn’t imagine Chris Catlin doing a Frankie Dettori flying dismount. But two significant things have happened this season to one of the best-liked middle-rank jockeys. Back in May his colleagues applauded him back into the weighing room for riding his 1,000th winner, and the highly particular Sir Mark Prescott has begun regularly putting Catlin, along with Luke Morris, aboard the horses he sends out from Kremlin House, Newmarket, praising him publicly as a real professional. From an ultra-realist who had only two stable jockeys over the previous 40 years, that is a description to cherish.

Catlin’s career hasn’t exactly been studded with Classic success, although he did win a German 2,000 Guineas for Mick Channon on Royal Power. But for true professionals there are other ways of making racing pay. Along with winning the champion apprentice title back in 2001, Catlin took the All Weather title both in 2008 and in 2009. He has four times ridden more than 100 winners in a season but perhaps the best measure of the value trainers put on his services is that he has had more than 1,000 rides in a season seven times. At Goodwood last Saturday as well as being put up by Sir Mark and Mick Channon he had rides for Chris Wall, Saeed bin Suroor and Bernard Llewellyn. He had ridden for 22 different trainers over the fortnight.