Jockeys & Trainers / Jeremy Grayson / 01 February 2009 / 1 Comments

Teenage riding sensation Rhys Flint is the greatest talent to emerge from South Wales since Simon Rowlands (it says here) - just remember who knew that first, whinges Jeremy Grayson.

There's not a sixth form common room in the country that doesn't contain that most accursed, self-aggrandising of creatures, a 'Fake Indie Snob'.

You know the sort - the kid who maintains you can't possibly be as true a fan as him of The Larvae Marias or Carnivourousmallard or some such NME-endorsed, whey-faced guitar-botherers because it was only him who saw them when they played at the Sprout and Gasmask to four people (so technically not really just him, then), and only him that has all the early tapes with hand-crayoned inserts, yadda yadda yadda.

Mercifully, most Fake Indie Snobs eventually grow out of that trait, usually upon discovering that kissing a girl actually is more meaningful than a stock email reply from Zane Lowe's producer, and are successfully re-assimilated into society soon after.

Alarmingly, though, I have found myself exhibiting rather similar behaviour to the Fake Indie Snob with regard to one individual lately.

Back on April 28th 2007, work commitments took me to the cheerily demented Laleston point-to-point near Bridgend. The opener featured a big outsider in The Brogue Rogue who usually capitulated after two miles, but the lad riding that day kept him in touch past that point, and continued to ride extremely tidily even once starting to lose ground, until the partnership took a purler at the last.

The highs and lows of racing condensed into your first ever competitive ride over jumps, then, young Rhys Flint.

The raw material was plainly evident, fall notwithstanding, and although I saw none of his six further rides that season, including his first win at Rhydygwern on Bobosh three weeks later, the reports back to me were that he was improving exponentially with each.

And how evident that improvement was the following winter! Rhys' permit-holding parents John and Martine put up their son on Iris's Prince and Bobosh, and he won 14 times on them altogether. I saw nearly all those wins, none impressing more than his fearless win on Iris's Prince at Hackwood Park, Basingstoke last April.

Comprehensively outpaced turning for home, Rhys exhibited power, finesse and wisdom beyond his callow youth, hugging the inner rail like no other rider would dare at Hackwood all season and galvanising his mount into prevailing by two short heads in an epic finish.

Of the three riders involved, it wasn't Rhys that incurred a whip ban. "You must be thrilled with that ride", I asked John afterwards in worryingly Thommo-esque fashion. "It might have saved him a bollocking", he smiled back mischievously, and only half-joking.

That pretty much sums up Rhys Flint's grounding in racing perfectly. Professional and moral assistance has come from Philip Hobbs and Richard Johnson, but the support from home has proven arguably more formative - generous enough to let him contest (and win) two National Pony Race titles, without being too indulgent to let errors on the course go unmentioned.

Interest from owners and trainers nationwide has been appreciable (rides for 50 trainers so far!), and was already well set before ubiquitous jockeys' agent Dave Roberts came calling last autumn. The booking of Flint by owner Raymond Anderson Green in hunter chases nine months ago was particularly significant - Mr Green prefers horsemen such as Timmy Murphy over windmill-armed flailers, and appreciates longevity of meaningful career for his animals.

Humouring old gitsworth Harlov not only to win two hunter chases (including the Horse & Hound Cup), but also to register the two best form performances of his life at 13, could hardly have met the remit any more perfectly.

He's not the first horse to have gone better for Flint, nor will he be the last. This exciting, fluid, technically sound 17-year-old is the best teenage jumps jockey I can ever recall seeing, and as long as AP McCoy's recent endorsement hasn't sent it plummeting I'll be all over the bookies taking a price on him one day being Champion Jockey by the time you read this.

Just remember, though - I knew he was good when it was only me in a field in Wales with a few dozen others (so technically not really just me, then). You can't possibly be as true a fan of him. You know you can't. I have the Laleston racecard to prove it, etc etc etc...