Riding in the Epsom Derby is about as different as you can get to what Kevin Stott envisaged he would be doing as a teenager.
All the Flat jockey wanted to be growing up was a professional footballer. But, when he came up short in his trials for Tottenham, aged 14, he found himself facing the prospect of going back to school, when academia was not his natural home.
Almost by default, the son and brother of jockeys decided to join them, more in a bid to avoid further education than any burning desire to be one himself.
Whatever the pathway to that decision, it has paid off. He rode in excess of 100 winners last season and came within a whisker of a first Derby win earlier this month on board King of Steel.
It is, perhaps, befitting for Stott — bearing in mind his past sporting journey — that the horse should be owned by football agent Kia Joorabchian’s ambitious Amo Racing operation, for whom he is the retained rider.
A Manchester United fan himself, Stott twice went to Joorabchian’s box at Arsenal last season, most recently for the Gunners’ final-day 5-0 drubbing of Wolves.
“Everything was horses all the time at home and I always knew how to ride but I didn’t want to,” recalls the 28-year-old. “I think the passion has probably always been there but I never had the initiative to ride.
“My passion for football was a lot bigger than my passion for racing but [becoming a jockey] was an easier option for me than having to go through school. It was actually an escape from doing that. The trial with Tottenham at 14 was a very good experience.
“Unfortunately, it didn’t happen the way I wanted it to. That’s life. I came home and decided to do something else.”
Today, that something else brings him to the opening day Royal Ascot, where he has a series of rides, not least of all a reunion with King of Steel in Friday’s King Edward VII Stakes, as Joorabchian targets a first Royal Ascot winner for his stable.
Second at the Derby has been a blessing and a curse. As he puts it: “It’s the biggest Flat race of the year so, when you finish second, you’re always going to be very annoyed but happy at the same time.”
My passion for football was a lot bigger than my passion for racing but becoming a jockey was an easier option for me than having to go through school
His pathway to the Derby and Royal Ascot was not necessarily the most typical. Born and brought up in Denmark — hardly the hot-bed of racing — two years after the Spurs rejection, his father sent him over to the UK, where he was taken in by trainer Kevin Ryan.
The Ryan partnership had spanned his whole career in the saddle before going freelance in 2022 and then being snapped up by Joorabchian for this season.
When the call came, he picked the brains of his father, with whom he speaks every day, his agent and girlfriend Megan Nicholls, and her father Paul, the renowned National Hunt trainer.
“Going freelance after being associated with Kevin for so many years was a hard decision,” says Stott. “But I wanted to try new possibilities and see what was around. But then a job like Amo doesn’t come around very often. When you go freelance, the hardest thing is finding good horses. I’m lucky to be associated with Kia, who has some very nice horses.”
Stott and Nicholls live just outside Newbury, and of their dual partnership as a couple plus jockey-agent, he says: “It weirdly works.” Plus, there is the added bonus of tapping into other horse-racing expertise.
“Paul’s been a big help to me since me and Megan first started seeing each other,” he says. “He’s been really good to me. If I have a question, he’s not shy of saying his opinion.
“And then I speak to my dad every day. He is my best and worst critic. He tells me when I think I’ve done wrong and he’s good at praising me when I’ve done good.”
The hope this week is that it will be an Ascot full of calls of praise. As for his football ambitions, even a five-a-side kickaround is on hold because of the risk of injury. In any case, he is happy with the sporting path he took, even if it was never the first choice.
