About Jim Culloty
Jim Culloty first shot to international racing prominence
as a jump jockey. He had his first racecourse ride as an
amateur on a horse called Midnight Madness in hunters chase
at Exeter on 3rd May 1993 and gained his first winner at
the same course the following January when riding Karicleigh
Boy to victory in a bumper. He rode a further three winners
in the two years that followed, but it was in 1996 that
his career well and truly took off with Jim riding a total
of 44 winners in the seven months leading up until August,
when he chose to turn professional.
That was the
beginning of a wonderful pro career that lasted almost a
decade during which he rode a
total of 394 winners up until his retirement in July
2005. He claimed a total of five wins at the
Cheltenham Festival, including
the 2000 Royal & Sun Alliance
Chase on Lord Noelie and the
2004 Champion Bumper,
as well as riding Bindaree
to a memorable success in the greatest steeplechase
in the world, the Aintree Grand
National, in 2002.
However, Jim will always be associated with the horse that
provided him with his other three successes at the
Cheltenham Festival, the
incomparable Best Mate.
Bought by Henrietta Knight
for Jim Lewis soon after winning a maiden point-to-point,
even in those early days, Best
Mate always promised to be something out the ordinary.
Jim first sat on the son of Un
Desperado when riding him to win a bumper at the
Cheltenham Open meeting in November 1999. Having made an
impressive hurdling debut, the pair went on to finish second
in Grade 1 novice events at Sandown and Cheltenham before
returning to winning ways at the
Aintree Grand National
meeting. Predictably, Best Mate
raised his performance to an all new level when sent over
fences during the 2000/01 season, teaming up with Jim to
win his first three starts over the larger obstacles including
an impressive 13 lengths
success in the Grade 1 Scilly
Isles Novices' Chase at Sandown. Foot and mouth disease
conspired to have that seasons Cheltenham Festival cancelled,
thus denying Best Mate
and Jim a chance to avenge their defeat in the Supreme Novice
Hurdle the previous March, but in time they would more than
make up for that defeat.
By now, Henrietta Knight
had adopted a policy of selective placing with
Best Mate, choosing to
run him just three or four times each season. 2001/02 saw
the pair make a winning seasonal reappearance in the
Haldon Gold Cup before
failing by ½l to give 20lbs to Wahiba Sands in the First
National Gold Cup at Ascot. Jim missed the ride on Best
Mate’s next start in the King George VI Chase, which resulted
in a ¾l defeat at the hands of
Florida Pearl, but the
pair were reunited for the biggest assignment of the seven-year-olds
career, the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Sent off at 7/1, Jim gave Henrietta Knight’s charge an inspired
ride to get the better of Commanche
Court by 1¾l. From that point, Knight made it clear
that Best Mate would have two distinct targets every year,
the King George VI Chase
and the Cheltenham Gold Cup,
a policy that would prove extremely profitable in the coming
seasons.
Best Mate
went through the 2002/03 season unbeaten, winning the
Peterborough Chase under
Jim before he again missed the ride in the King George,
but this time McCoy made no mistake, running out the 1½l
winner. Jim was back in the saddle for the
Cheltenham Gold Cup and
having been sent off as the 13/8 favourite, the pair produced
a breath taking performance to run out the hugely impressive
10 lengths winner. That
win marked Best Mate out as a truly immense talent, but
even better was to come.
The 2003/04 started off
somewhat inauspiciously with a defeat at long odds-on in
the Peterborough Chase, but with Henrietta Knight having
opted to come over to Ireland for the
Ericsson Chase rather
than run in the King George, Jim and Best Mate recorded
another hugely impressive victory to beat Le Coudrey by
nine lengths. That win set up Jim and Best Mate with a date
with destiny, a bid to emulate
Arkle and win their third
consecutive Cheltenham Gold Cup. With rain on the
morning of the race threatening to scupper his chance, Best
Mate was allowed to drift to 8/11 from 1/2 to seal his place
in history. Everything was going to plan for the pair until
having jumped 3 out, they found themselves hemmed in by
Paul Carberry and Harbour Pilot, but once switched to the
outer, Best Mate produced one of the most memorable jumps
in recent decades at the penultimate fence to take the lead
and he stayed on strongly thereafter to prevail by ½l from
Sir Rembrandt. It was
a memorable day for all concerned and was undoubtedly the
highlight of Jim’s riding career. However, that would prove
to be the last time the pair would combine for victory as
physical problems limited Best
Mate to just three starts in the next 18 months,
the last of which resulted in him suffering a fatal heart
attack in the Haldon Gold Cup.
Despite his tragic end, Best Mate was a tremendous servant
to the racing game and he played a huge role in the career
of Jim.
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