Jack Callan was suited up at Ascot for Champions Day, British flat racing’s big annual send-off; not to ride – those Group 1 days will come, no doubt – but to be received and recognised as this year’s champion apprentice.
It was a day that represented an ambition fulfilled, a goal achieved, even a family legacy continued. There he was with his mother Trish, his brothers Henry – crowned this year’s champion amateur – Ted and Will, and dad Neil Callan, Britain’s champion apprentice himself all of 27 not-so-short years ago.
Callan senior has forged a successful career as a hard-working, straight-talking, tough as boots jockey with Group 1 wins, and an international profile, too, thanks to his spell riding in Hong Kong where the locals dubbed him “Iron Man” and where Jack spent a good number of his formative years.
But the old man’s success was built on a bedrock of early years winters learning his trade and establishing his reputation around the ‘all-weather’ circuit: riding the Polytrack and Fibresand of Lingfield, Southwell and Wolverhampton; many of those wins being for an emerging Karl Burke in the silks of owner Nigel Shields.
Nowadays there’s Newcastle’s Tapeta track on that list of cold, unforgiving, character-building winter venues of artificial track and authentic graft. And that’s what Jack Callan has ahead of him during the short days and long nights of the next few months.
“I’m going to be sticking around this winter, so I’ll get my winter gloves out, but I’m looking forward to it,” Callan junior told Idol Horse while standing in the rain outside the Newcastle weighing room the evening before his Ascot crowning.
“I went away last year and I did love it in Australia but it’ll be nice to graft and try and get some nice winners and ride some nice horses over the winter here. Hopefully build my connections as we go into the spring.”
Newcastle is a track Callan already knows as well as he does the long drive to England’s northeast, 250 miles up the A1 motorway from his family’s Newmarket home. He looked every bit an established Newcastle veteran with an accomplished ride to win the 10-furlong handicap a few minutes earlier.
“It’s very satisfying, you can feel it,” he said, describing the cool, immaculately executed come-from-behind delivery of Patrol, which had the horse’s head in front the only time it mattered.
“He was probably further back than I wanted to be,” he added.
Callan, 19, is one of a golden triumvirate of champions attached to the youthful and blossoming George Boughey stable. He rides out there alongside his brother Henry, and the young man crowned Britain’s outright champion jockey on Saturday, the precocious Billy Loughnane, still only 20.
“It’s a great place to work and (George) has given all of us opportunities and support, so it’s brilliant for the team the way things have gone this year,” Loughnane told Idol Horse recently.
Callan is thriving in that environment, yet still needs to pinch himself when he thinks about the year he and the Boughey team have had: his own championship tally was 54 wins, 15 clear of his nearest rival, and he has 63 and counting for the year; his brother was champion amateur with five wins; Loughnane’s champion jockey title was earned with 159 wins and he has 223 for the year to date; and the stable has sent out 80 wins, four at the highest level including the 2,000 Guineas.
“It’s nuts,” Callan said. “And Bow Echo is our champion horse for the year, so it’s been a phenomenal year for the stable. It’s great to see the whole team doing well, we work very closely and we all gallop on the same horses and we’re giving feedback to hopefully benefit the whole yard and keep going on that uptrend. So, yeah, we do everything we can to make the yard flow as best as possible.”
Callan has been around the sport from the moment he was born and his experiences as a boy in Hong Kong, attending barrier trials, watching his dad at trackwork, were part of him developing a deep passion for racing and a determination to become a jockey. Having his dad to guide him has been a benefit.
“It’s a privilege that I’m very, very aware of and I’m very grateful to have him and learn from everything he’s been through,” Callan said.
“He was champion apprentice back in 1999 or whatever. He’s done everything you could have possibly thought of in the sport, although the sport has changed from his day so it is a bit different. I’ve got to obviously make my own path but it’s good to just have him there if I ever need him.”
Callan left Newcastle with a double: Nepal came from behind, too, but was delivered earlier than Patrol, hitting the front a furlong out to win by a length and three-quarters at odds of 18 to 1.
The champion apprentice title sealed, that cherished achievement is now in the past as far as Callan is concerned: he knows he must press on and continue his progression with a lot of hard work, many miles travelled up and down the motorways, and more winners in the bag if he is to avoid the drop-off many young jockeys fresh out of their apprenticeships experience.
“As an athlete you always want to be more and more than you are. It’s never enough,” he said. “I’ve got things to take and improve on from this year into next year and hopefully I can just continue on the upward trend.
“There were times this season where I was getting a little bit flustered and I was going through patches without riding any winners, or going through patches where I was getting suspended and my head was just sort of in the clouds a little bit. But to have my agent, Tony Hind, who’s fantastic, and my dad, they just bring me back down and say just relax and it will come to you eventually.”
His ambitions include to one day follow Loughnane’s lead and become champion jockey, the one that got away from his dad who was runner-up in the title race in 2005 and 2007. But next comes the hard, winter grind that he hopes will bring the connections and support that can carry him into another successful campaign next year and on to the next level.
“The mindset I’m in at the moment is just head down and keep riding as many winners as possible,” he said, “And just keep enjoying it, that’s the main thing as well. At the end of the day it’s something I’ve always wanted to do, I love my job.”
“So, yeah, when you step back and actually look at it from the outside it’s been a phenomenal year,” he added. “I’ve beaten every goal that I set out to achieve, so when you’ve done that, you have to be appreciative of it.” ∎
