‘Every winner feels special’ – Callum Pritchard living the dream as he closes in on novice riders’ championship

Callum Pritchard cannot help but smile as he homes in on the novice men’s championship, sponsored by Highflyer Bloodstock.

“Keep a straight face for this one,” I suggest while trying to snap a few pictures of him in the paddock at a recent meeting. “I can’t,” he said, “I’m too happy.”

Pritchard, who works for Philip Hobbs and Johnson White, has risen in little more than a month from obscurity to the fringe of a title race won in recent years by such erstwhile pro jockeys as Sean and James Bowen, Harry Cobden, Connor Brace and Jack Tudor. Cobden is the odd one out in that group, for he is English and the others Welsh, and Pritchard, who grew up near Cardiff, is another with Wales in his heart.