FD: I really don't know. When I look
back, I never wanted to be who I am
right now. My life snowballed out of
control. I was happy to be a journey-
man jockey, riding my 50 winners; I
would have been happy with that.
But it snowballed, I became addict-
ed to it, and now I am what I am. But
when I was 14 or 15 I never had those
kind of ambitions. With my own chil-
dren I feel the most important thing
is that they find something they are
going to enjoy, the way I did. We're
not going to pigeon-hole them, they
should try a few things and find
what they like. Rocco, the little one,
he's interested in racing, he enjoys
the Shetland ponies. But I'm not
going to push him, he's only 13 [in
January].
TDN: But if the jockey who flapped like
a monkey at Thirsk had never improved,
what might life have held for him?
