Whirlwind Year for Davies Ends with Winter in Bahrain

SAKHIR, Bahrain–It has been a big year for Harry Davies. Having made his first appearance under rules aboard Battered (GB) for Hugo Palmer at Southwell on January 11, Britain's fastest-rising apprentice is currently engaged in his first overseas riding job at the Bahrain Turf Club, where he is working for leading trainer Allan Smith. 

In the weighing-room, Davies is as fresh-faced as they come, but then that's no surprise as he is still only 17. In conversation, however, he has the maturity and quiet confidence of someone twice his age. That too should perhaps not be surprising. Though Davies was only granted his licence a year ago, he is no stranger to work-riding or race-riding. 

He started out at the tender age of 10, a mere slip of a boy using his innate skill rather than strength on Newmarket Heath while riding out for Hugo Palmer, to whom his mother Angie Shea is assistant trainer. From that precocious start, he was twice crowned pony racing champion in the UK, and was then taken under the wing of Andrew and Annalisa Balding at the fabled Kingsclere academy which has been so instrumental in the nascent careers of current champion jockey William Buick and former treble champion jockey Oisin Murphy, among others. 

As the 2022 season rumbled into gear in Britain it wasn't long before trainers started muttering Davies's name in quiet awe and swiftly booking him for rides as his claim dropped from seven to five to three faster that you can say future champion jockey. 

On a coffee break after riding work for Smith on the eve of Bahrain's biggest race day on Friday, Davies explains his presence at Sakhir racecourse. He says, “The plan was just to come away for the winter, to save my claim, get a little bit of experience elsewhere and just learn as much as I can really. The plan was originally to go to Australia, however that fell through with my visa as I'm only 17. But Bahrain accepted me and I'm very thankful to Shaikh Isa and to Mr Smith for taking me on over here and giving me some nice opportunities. I've learned a lot, they're great people and I'm really enjoying it.”

By the opening day of the turf season back at home last March, Davies was given the leg-up from Charlie Appleby in the Godolphin blue silks to ride Modern News (GB) in the Lincoln, and by May, when he was closing in on 20 winners, he was already being talked about as a champion apprentice contender. In fact, the championship went to his chief rival, Benoit de la Sayette, who was apprenticed to John and Thady Gosden, but Davies has to date ridden 67 winners in Britain in a year he won't forget in a hurry and which included riding in the royal colours of her late Majesty the Queen.

“I love nothing more than race riding,” he says. “To have the first year I had was unbelievable really and I never expected it to go how it did. And hats off to Benoit, he's a fantastic young rider who's very, very talented and it was just great to have that competition there. I enjoyed every minute of it, even though it was very stressful along the way. But I learned so much, not just about race riding, but about myself this year, and I can't wait to go again when I start riding again, probably in late March.”

With just 27 wins permitted before he loses his claim, Davies is being wisely guarded by his boss and is full of praise for the Balding team as well as Hugo Palmer, who played such a key role in his formative years. Though the young jockey is not in contact with his father, the former champion apprentice Stephen Davies, he has also been able to lean on sterling help from both his mother and stepfather Phil Shea, who is also his agent.

“I grew up on a horse essentially,” he recalls. “It was all I ever did as a kid, just ride ponies and horses. In Newmarket I started riding out for Mr Palmer before school and he gave me a lot of fantastic opportunities. Then I started riding out for my boss, Mr Balding, when I was probably 12 or 13 in the summer holidays. I'd go there for a couple of weeks at a time and get to know the crew there and I absolutely loved it at Kingsclere. I got my grades in school and left when I had just turned 16. I started living in the [Kingsclere] hostel and made some great friends and never really looked back.”

He continues, “We had a great conversation just before I came out here about using the rest of my claim to the best of its worth, and the vision is very much to get experience. In a sense it's half a working holiday. You've got the sunshine, it's a completely different way of training and riding here, and it's a nice change of scenery for me.

“I've been here for a few weeks now and from what I've done so far, I've absolutely loved it, but it's very important that I get back on the yard, get to know the young horses for next season and spend some time with the guys in the yard. That's very important, so I'll be heading back home in mid-December.”

Prior to that, Davies, who has had two rides so far for Smith and will partner the Aga Khan-bred Rayounpour (Ire) (Cape Cross {Ire}) for him in the Batelco Cup on Friday, will make the most of the opportunities that his sojourn offers, including riding alongside Paul Hanagan, who is another to be wintering in Bahrain. 

The former champion jockey was uncharacteristically punchy in his criticism of some of the riding on display at tracks in Britain in an interview earlier this season, which may or may not be in Davies's mind when he says, “The older jockeys are always there to mould you as a jockey because they can see that you're going to be in the weighing-room for a while and it's important to teach you along the way. So that's great when you get that. The weighing-room is a very busy place, but sometimes it can be quite lonely as well, and you find a lot of things out about yourself along the way. 

“I've only had two rides here and I've loved it really. It's just been great to see the different culture, because in England [the racing] is every single day and it never stops. So when one day's racing is done, you're immediately looking at tomorrow's meeting and don't have much time to reflect. And that's what I've done since I've been here, trying to reflect on the season and trying to improve myself, not only as a jockey, but as a person really. I think that the quieter time has been very good for me.”

Davies's words, uttered at such a relatively young age, call to mind Rudyard Kipling's rather more famous words: 'If you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs'. He has already proved that he has a cool and calculating head when it comes to race-riding. Facing the pressures that will surely come with his mounting fame will be a challenge of a different sort, but Davies appears to be in the best hands to help him with that along the way, not least his own.