Early starts, long journeys, and falls along the way, life as a jump jockey can be a tough one at times. However, when you throw in winners here and there it does make it all worthwhile, and for Charlotte Jones it's no different. Here Jones tells all about how she became a jockey and what makes her keep doing the job she loves...
IN ACTION: Charlotte Jones on board Burbank. Credit: Francesca Altoft
Horse Racing is certainly a sport like no other.
Whether it be on the flat, or over the jumps, day after day jockeys ride horses around tracks at around 30 miles per hour and put themselves at risk to serious injuries, with the adrenaline buzz they get from riding winners spurring them on.
Trainers prepare their horses so they are finely tuned for the big occasion, whether it be for a 0-60 handicap on a wet Monday evening at Dunstall Park in Wolverhampton, or the Grand National at Aintree.
Owners searching for that diamond in the rough that can take them to the biggest meetings in the country, and the stable staff who turn up and work with the trainers and jockeys all the time to give the horses the best possible care, the sport involves so many various roles and people.
Being a jockey in particular though is something completely different from the usual 9-5 job.
The role isn't as easy as just turning up to the racecourse, riding horses, and then going home again.
LIFE IN THE SADDLE: Irish jockey Sean Flanagan gives an insight as to what a day looks like for a jockey. Credit: Off The Ball YouTube.
It involves long days, and even longer journeys, with the chance of falling off your mount and getting injured also a possibility.
Charlotte Jones has spent most of her life involved and surrounded by horses, studying equine science for two years at Myerscough College and graduating with a degree.
The 27-year-old then joined Cartmel based trainer James Moffatt's yard in 2015 and has been involved there ever since, with Jones now being Moffatt's stable jockey.
"I've ridden since I was about six-years-old, and I was always the one that was flying around everywhere," Jones said with a smile.
"For me, I always wanted to be a physio, but I never managed to get accepted onto any of the university courses, so I just stayed at Myerscough and completed my degree.
"It was in my 2nd year that I started working more closely with racehorses in particular and I then started watching Royal Ascot alongside my grandad who loved horse racing.
"My tutor on the course worked at Cartmel racecourse, and said I could always come along and help out on race days if I wanted to.
"Then by chance really I found out that Jimmy (Moffatt), was looking for stable staff, so despite not having ridden a horse at all by that point he took me on, reluctantly I think, and I'm still there now so, I must've done something right."
On this day when I'm talking to Jones, she's travelling back from Catterick alongside trainer James Moffatt after riding Native Fighter to a fourth-place finish in the opening Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle.
CATTERICK RACECOURSE: Credit: Hugh Mortimer.
"This morning I was up at quarter past five then left the yard here in Cartmel at nine so that we could make it over there in time," Jones said.
From the base in Cartmel, it took just over 90 minutes to get to the North Yorkshire village, making it a three hour round trip for jockey Jones and trainer Moffatt.
"When I got to the track I just chilled for a bit before meeting my coach Brian Harding so that we could go out and walk the track," Jones said.
"I then went to the physio and got some taping sorted before getting changed and weighing out and going out to ride in the race."
Jones is only one winner off equalling her best season to date, currently sitting on 15 after she steered Lunar Discovery to success at Wetherby.
She then found herself picking up Conditional Jumps Ride of the season at the Racing Welfare Northern Racing awards for her superb winning performance on Native Fighter back at Cartmel in May 2021, but insists she isn't looking too much into the statistics.
WINNER: Jones picks up an award for her superb ride on Native Fighter at Cartmel in 2021. Credit: Charlotte Jones Facebook.
Jones said: "I try to keep things as open as possible to be honest, I don't have any certain targets and just keep things as simple as possible.
"Right now I'd love to be able to have more rides over fences which is starting to happen and then picking up more outside rides so that I can build up my experience and contacts.
"In terms of goals though obviously everyone wants to ride a big race winner and that would be nice, but I'm just focused on what's going on right in front of me."
The jockey made the news back in February 2021 when she produced a stunning ride on the Moffatt trained The Steward to win by 13 lengths.
INCREDIBLE: Jones guides The Steward to victory in unbelievable fashion. Credit: At The Races YouTube
One person who has seen how far Jones has come in the sport since she first started out is trainer Moffatt.
Moffatt said: "It's a natural progression that the more you ride racehorses the more you improve but with Charlotte she's improved exponentially over the past couple of years.
"She's always had the raw ability to go out and compete against professional riders, but she's really improved in confidence.
"Over a fence she's great and overall, in her racing as well she also rides a fantastic race."
Getting the chance to train in one of the most scenic places in the country in the Lake District, which also happens to be where he grew up, Moffatt has also like Jones had a lifetime spent around horses.
The 50-year-old grew up in a training yard and was a National Hunt jockey, winning a Scottish Champion Hurdle and also at the Cheltenham Festival.
A Grade 1 winning trainer, with success at Cheltenham and also at Aintree over the Grand National fences in the Becher Chase, when Highland Lodge ran a career best back in 2015 to land the Grade 3 contest and make Moffatt the one and only North West trainer still to train the winner in the race.
IN THE NATIONAL: James Moffatt reacts to Highland Lodge getting a place in the 2017 Grand National where he finished pulled up. Credit: Racing Post YouTube.
Next year will be the 20th year since Moffatt established his base at Pit Farm, which is only half a mile away from Cartmel racecourse, and he knows the place like the back of his hand.
"We know every nook and cranny around here in Cartmel," Moffatt said with a wide smile across his face.
"When we have winners around there it's a double bubble really because we get the winner and then the locals also are supportive and get behind us.
"I always feel like I have more pressure on me as well," Moffatt joked.
"We're the leading yard there now for the fifth time and it's just really good and will always make sense for me to have as many runners there as possible because it's just so nearby and ideal for us."
TOP TRAINER AND JOCKEY: Moffatt's yard is only half a mile away from Cartmel racecourse, and him and Jones boast an impressive strike rate around their local track. Credit: John H Darch.
Despite having never rode a racehorse before joining Moffatt, it wasn't long before Jones got the chance in the saddle.
A year after making the move to the stable, she rode 10-year-old Chesnut Smart Ruler to a third-place finish in the Lady Riders' Handicap Hurdle, a race won by none other than Rachel Blackmore, who in 2021 became the first female jockey ever to win the Grand National aboard Minella Times, ending a 182 year wait for one.
"I didn't really know much about racing at that point still, and I just sort of winged it to be honest," Jones said.
"Luckily I had a good horse with me in Smart Ruler who got me round and then stayed on well at the finish to get third and at the end it was a great feeling but it all sort of just happened around me still and I didn't know what was going on to be fair."
In the summer of 2017, she then went on to ride her first winner in a Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle, a day that Jones will never forget.
Jones said: "It was special really, because only 12 months before I was having my first ride on a horse, and it just so happened that the horse that taught me how to ride was also my first winner.
"I owe Lough Kent an awful lot for that day and he's sadly no longer with us, but I went into that race not expecting to come out with a winner.
"We dropped him out at the back and when I won it just felt brilliant that I had managed to do it around my local track at Cartmel and get off the mark."
Jones was brought up 45 minutes away from the racecourse in Barrow-in-Furness, and after riding three winners at Cartmel, she then finished the year off with success around Aintree when she rode the Moffatt trained 33/1 shot Bon Chic to victory.
AINTREE SUCCESS: Jones rode Bon Chic to success around the Merseyside track back in 2017. Credit: Wikimedia Commons Rept0n1x.
"I was a 10lbs claimer at the time, and I just remember it being one of those races where I almost ended up everywhere throughout it," Jones said.
"Through the summer I'd been unseated by the mare, and I was just hoping that it wouldn't happen again, but it was a really good feeling there that day."
In the coming winter months, Jones and Moffatt will be keeping the yard, and horses, ticking over, with a few smart performers out along the way before their usual raid for sticky toffee pudding at Cartmel takes place as usual through the summer.
AMONG THE WINNERS: Moffatt and Jones tasted success with Lunar Discovery at Wetherby. Credit: James Moffatt Racing Twitter.
One horse in particular that Jones is excited about is Moonlight Spirit who could make his seasonal reappearance at Haydock on Wednesday.
Jones said: "He's one that I'm really looking forward to.
"I won a novice on him this time last year and he's a horse with the biggest engine that I've ever sat on and he's definitely some horse to keep an eye on."
A sport that included plenty of highs mixed in with a handful of lows, and Jones and Moffatt have had their fair share of a bit of everything in their careers so far.
But they've struck up an excellent partnership which only seems to go from strength to strength, and they are certainly a pair to keep an eye on over the next few months, especially when Cartmel returns.