Racing: Culloty stays a step ahead

Lord Windermere (right) outslogs On His Own (centre) and The Giant Bolster in the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Photo / AP

On a day of brutal falls for jockeys it was apt that Jim Culloty, the Gold Cup winning trainer, should offer "multiple concussions" as his reason for giving up riding in favour of the safer end of the trade.

On the 10th anniversary of Best Mate's last Gold Cup victory - Culloty rode him all three times - the man who sent out the 20-1 shot Lord Windermere to shock Cheltenham Festival punters on Sunday explained why he had left the weighing room at the relatively tender age of 31.

"I was getting multiple concussions - plenty of bangs on the head - and I thought I was going to get brain damage," he said. "I thought, 'If I carry on with this game I'll be good for nothing'."

"Tell them the truth," Davy Russell, Lord Windermere's jockey shouted to lighten the mood, but Culloty seemed to mean what he was saying.

Fifty years on from the first of the great Arkle's triumphs in the race, this was a suitably all-Irish affair, with the owner, Ronan Lambe, supplying the firepower for Culloty to train a small string in Mallow, County Cork.

The Best Mate years taught Culloty all about Gold Cup lustre. But this win was all his own.

Also a Grand National winner with Bindaree, he struck up a famous partnership with Best Mate's trainer, Henrietta Knight.

A Cheltenham winner last year, in the RSA Chase, Lord Windermere was nevertheless an outsider to all bar Culloty, who surprised viewers of Channel 4's Morning Line by saying he found riding harder than training.

Ted Walsh, father of Ruby, furrowed his brow at that. "A ride lasts five minutes," he pointed out.

After a tense stewards' inquiry Culloty said: "A couple of people said to me, 'You got mixed up this morning, didn't you?' I love training horses.

"It's a 24/7 job. You're doing it the whole time. When you're not doing it you're thinking about it.

"But I was able to relax in the parade ring today because my work was done. It was up to him [pointing to Russell].

"As a jockey I put huge, tremendous pressure on myself, because you have got five minutes to get it right. If you don't, you know about it."

He is a chirpy sort, but training has been a struggle since he took out a licence after retiring from the saddle in 2005.

He said: "First and foremost, I've been in the doldrums on numerous occasions. All trainers have, but when you're in them you think it's just you.

"You get low and think to yourself, 'What am I doing in this job, go and get a proper job'. Without Dr Lambe's support we wouldn't be here today.

"Two-and-a-half years ago, not only was everyone else saying 'that fellah hasn't a clue how to train a horse', I was saying the same thing.

"I was on the phone to everybody. I phoned Paul Nicholls. I phoned up all these guys for advice and they were all very helpful.

"I did what everyone does: change the feed, change the gallops, we even changed the type of horse we were buying.

"And it all came down to one little thing - a bit of a fungus in the stable. Once that was eradicated, the rest is history. I bought a new lorry on Monday. I can pay for it now."Telegraph Group Ltd