HOWARD WRIGHT
Among the grizzled, weatherbeaten ranks of the UAE’s regular band of seasoned jockeys, there is usually a fresh-faced youngster over from Britain or Ireland, looking to advance his fledgling career. This season that is Connor Planas, the 18yo apprentice who has joined Bhupat Seemar’s Zabeel Stables.
Planas had his first rides at the weekend, beginning at Meydan and Jebel Ali, where he registered a couple of third places. Based on his first season riding in public in Britain, he may not take too long to get off the mark. When, rather than if, Planas does ride his first winner in the UAE, he will be notching the 20th success of a career that did not begin until this spring in the UK.
And when that happens, his riding allowance as an apprentice in the UK will drop from 7lb to 5lb, but the good news for those following and participating in his current campaign is that the Emirates Racing Authority rules allow him another ten winners before his present Gulf claim of 3kg goes down to 2.5kg. Experience has already come fairly thick and fast for Planas, whose score of 19 winners, from 136 rides, put him on exactly No.
100 in the list of jockeys to have ridden winners in Britain this calendar year, when he left Newmarket for Dubai. Not bad going for a young man who rode his first winner only in the middle of May, when he landed an apprentice handicap on Crystal Casque for Rod Millman on his eighth ride in public.
That Planas rode his first winner for a trainer other than Tom Clover, to whom he is apprenticed, and that he ended his opening campaign having ridden for 24 individual trainers, including Millman and Clover, is not only a tribute to his own skill. It owes more than a little to the fact that he has Tony Hind as his agent. Hind has made more champion Flat jockeys than any other modern-day agent, including steering William Buick to his first title this year.
Clover trains at the Kremlin Lodge stables owned by his wife Jackie’s mother Gay Jarvis, whose late husband Michael had so much success from the yard before his untimely death in 2011. So, there was an emotional element to one of Planas’s most recent wins, which came on Daring Guest, owned by Mrs Jarvis, and on whom Planas learned to ride as a 13yo.
Fired by a weekend job with Clover, Planas was eventually allowed to take out his apprentice licence, and after winning on Daring Guest he told the day’s TV interviewer: “I love every day when I’m riding, you can’t get a better feeling.” His success has not gone unnoticed, and in September he was signed up for sponsorship by Al Basti Equiworld Dubai, the horse feed supplier which under the watchful eye of Malih Al Basti supports several riders.
Planas received his dedicated riding breeches from his idol Ryan Moore, which in more ways than one should act as a spur for the youngster. Not only does Planas admit that he styles himself on Moore, but Moore was an apprentice claiming 3lb when he first appeared in the UAE, riding for Zabeel Stables. Planas is clearly on the right lines and in good hands.
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