Martin Dwyer blames himself but was it Richard Hills fault

and Dwyer is just too nice of a guy to say so?


Derby-winning jockey Martin Dwyer emerges from the doldrums

When Martin Dwyer thrust Sir Percy’s head in front on the line to win the 2006 Derby in a four-way photo, it appeared the world was his oyster.

By Marcus Armytage http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/horseracing/



It was his second Epsom Classic, he was a genuine top 10 jockey riding Group One winners like they were going out of fashion and he was three months into the job as second jockey to Sheikh Hamdan – with great expectations of inheriting the No 1 spot the moment Richard Hills, as he inevitably would, retired.


Five years later Dwyer attempts to win his first Group One since the Derby when he rides Most Improved for Brian Meehan in the Dubai Dewhurst at Newmarket on Saturday.
“It sounds awful when you say it like that,” conceded Dwyer, 36, “I’ve been placed in a few since then!”


Liverpudlian Dwyer does not do regrets and never lost his humour – you don’t, he says, when you’ve been an Everton supporter since the age of three – but in two seasons as Sheikh Hamdan’s No 2 he succeeded in burning all the bridges, most notably those grand structures linking him to Andrew Balding and Marcus Tregoning, which he had built in the first half of his career.
“At the time I thought going to Sheikh Hamdan would be a step sideways rather than a forward one but I’d still ride nice horses and, in the long run when I got the first job, all worthwhile,” he said. “But it didn’t work out like that.”
Instead he never knew where he would be riding as he waited for Hills to make his own mind up – as a first jockey is entitled to do – and after mucking all his old trainers about with late switches to other tracks, they lost their patience and he lost them.
“It damaged my career massively,” he reflected on Wednesday. “And I have no one to blame but myself. It could have been different if I’d got the first job but I couldn’t wait any longer. [He would have still been waiting now].
“I had to leave and start from almost scratch. It’s racing, it’s life, it was disappointing because I never stopped working hard and didn’t do anything stupid but I’ve really suffered for it. It’s been hard getting going again as there are more jockeys now and fewer horses.”

The rebuilding of his career was all but complete a year ago. From picking up a few spare rides from Manton as a freelance, he had assumed the role as first jockey to Meehan and was enjoying being part of a team again, but progress was halted in its tracks when he fractured his elbow at Leicester. It kept him out for four months and cost him a Breeders’ Cup Turf winner on Dangerous Midge.
On Friday he goes to York to ride Dangerous Midge in preparation of his Breeders’ Cup defence. “He got very tired after a long lay-off at Newbury last time,” explained Dwyer whose seven-winner haul in two days back in August harked back to the old days.

Most Improved, a Lawman colt, won a Newmarket maiden by five lengths last time. “We think he’s very good,” he said “and he’s probably our best two year-old. With hindsight he’d have won his first start, when he was beaten a short-head, for a few whacks but he was green and he wasn’t ready for that then. But he’s getting the hang of it and seems to have improved so we’re hopeful.”