Promising jockey Lilly Pinchin brushes off social media abuse as career in the saddle goes from strength to strength
IT won’t be long until rising star of the weighing room Lilly Pinchin is stealing headlines.
The conditional rider only turned pro in the summer – and she is already making waves.
She has almost doubled her career tally of winners this season, and on Thursday passed the £100k prize money mark for the year.
But a growing profile has also led to an increased backlash from punters on social media.
Pinchin, 21, has ridden 14 winners so far this term, and if you had a quid on each of her rides blind you’d be comfortably in profit.
That doesn’t stop some from taking to Twitter to dish out abuse if she rides a loser.
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She said: “The other day I was saying to my mum, ‘I can’t deal with it, I want to delete Twitter’.
“When you’ve ridden a horse and you’ve just got beat, there is no one in the world who feels worse than you do.
“So when you go on your phone and you read those sorts of abusive comments, they make you feel awful.
“Twitter can be brilliant, some of the positive feedback I’ve got from people after a winner is amazing.
“But when something doesn’t work out, the people who have lost their bet give you a lot of abuse.
“It’s not good for jockeys. Some can just brush it off but for a lot of people it can really affect and upset you.”
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Pinchin was on the receiving end of some bile just last weekend when she finished second in a big handicap chase live on ITV.
She was riding the classy Ami Desbois for her boss Graeme MacPherson at Kempton, and she was still in the lead on the approach to the last.
But the 22-1 shot made a mistake and was swallowed up on the run-in by Double Shuffle.
Pinchin was thrilled with the run of the 11-year-old, a one-time Cheltenham Festival hopeful who showed he still had plenty of ability on his first outing for a year.
But miffed punters were quick to direct their anger at the 5lb claimer.
She said: “Big Saturday winners are the things you dream of when you’re young.
“He ran his little heart out and he gave me a great ride and we were so close. It was his first run of the season and he just got tired late on.
“Afterwards I had a lot of messages from people on Twitter saying to me ‘you should have done this’ or ‘you should have thrown him at the last’.
“It can be a little upsetting because they’re only worried about their bet and they don’t understand the big picture.
“There was no stride there and the last thing I want to do is put him on the floor, we all love him in the yard.
“He is 11 now, he knows more about the game than me, and we have managed to get the fire back in his belly.
“He has a big one in him this season I’ve no doubt. But you just have to try and forget about those sorts of reactions.”
But the positives have outweighed the negatives for Pinchin, and her career is on a sharp upward curve.
The jock has advertised her talents on the likes of prolific jumpers Cyclop, Mr Washington and Sammylou this winter.
She had her heart set on becoming a jockey from an early age – even leaving school early to follow her dream.
She said: “My family have absolutely nothing to do with horse racing so it has all been off my own back.
“I had a pony called Magical Toffee when I was a kid and my mum said ‘there is no way you are racing your pony because you will ruin him’.
“But I insisted and I rode him in a race at Cheltenham and he won. So from that point on I was hooked.
“I left school when I was 15, I didn’t want to be there at all. I think I said something along the lines of ‘mum, let me leave school or I’ll make your life hell’!
“It was the best thing I ever did. I went straight to Fergal O’Brien’s and he taught me so much.
“I rode a brilliant horse called Creevytenant for him and he gave me my first winner against the professionals, so that kick started my career.
“From there I moved to Graeme MacPherson’s yard which has been the icing on the cake for me.
“I wasn’t quite ready to turn professional last season, so I had a really good amateur year up until coronavirus happened.
“When racing restarted I turned conditional and I have made some amazing contacts. I couldn’t have dreamt it would go this well.”
And one jockey in particular has been a huge inspiration for Pinchin.
“Rachael Blackmore is absolutely incredible,” she said.
“She started pretty late in her career, and she has done lady jockeys the world of good.
“Girls are different, we are built differently to blokes. But she is so good, she rides so tight and she is so effective.
“She is so stylish and she comes across so well. She is absolutely a jockey that I look up to.”
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