Ryedale jockey queen Jacqueline aims to continue jumping to it on the track (From York Press)

Ryedale jockey queen Jacqueline Coward aims to continue jumping to it on the track

9:54am Friday 13th January 2012 in Turf Talk By Steve Carroll, Sports reporter

SHE has enjoyed the ultimate champagne moment on the Flat. But Jacqueline Coward will never permanently swap the drama of the jumps for the luxury of the level – not for all the Pol Roger in the world.

Coward won the richest race in Europe for lady amateur riders when she steered Crackentorp to victory in the Queen Mother’s Cup at York Racecourse last June. Her prize, aside from a fetching trophy, was her weight in fizz.

Point-to-Point is more bitter than bubbly. That’s right up Coward’s street.

“The Flat is completely boring,” the 26-year-old said. “I just love jumping. Racing is in my blood. I just love horses and love riding. As soon as I was 16, all I wanted to do was race. And I just love winning.

“It doesn’t matter whatever it is – even if it is a board game. I hate being beaten.”

That sort of determination has seen Coward crowned as Yorkshire’s undisputed Point-to-Point queen. Five times she has been the champion lady and, as the county season gets under way on Sunday, she is in no mood to relinquish her title.

Partly that’s down to her competitive spirit, but it is also because she wants to get out while at the top. Like all riders, who fly over fences with their mounts, injury has hit hard. In 2009, she was airlifted to hospital after suffering bad head and shoulder injuries in a fall at Catterick. Last year, she broke her back.

“I’m not going to be riding for long,” Coward explained. “I don’t want to be one of those old people riding. I think ‘what are they doing?’ – when they’ve got kids – and with age you do deteriorate.

“When I have a fall now, it does hurt and I have had a lot of injuries considering I am quite young. By the time I am 36, I don’t want to have a crick in my neck. But, while I am doing it now, I still want to win.

“I would love to train but all I want to do at the moment is ride.”

Sunday’s opening meeting at Sheriff Hutton is a family affair for Coward. Not only is it held on her grandfather Mick Easterby’s farm, she will be riding against her younger cousin, Joanna Mason. Easterby’s son, and Coward’s uncle, David, will also be saddling runners.

It’s a friendly rivalry.

“We will all be really happy for each other (whoever wins),” said Scackleton-based Coward, whose mother Cherry also trained Amicelli to win the Foxhunter Chase at the Cheltenham Festival three years ago. “We are all a proper family.

“I don’t think anyone will believe how we all get on. We all help each other out. We are such a close knit family and we don’t realise it until we speak to other people about their families.”

Amicelli, now 13, is primed to make an appearance at Sheriff Hutton – and Coward hasn’t ruled out another run at the Festival in March. But only if the old horse agrees.

“Amicelli is just a legend – a little monkey and a teaser,” she said. “He’s a bit of an old man but he is still bouncing at home. He took off with my mum recently. We feel we’ve got to run him because he is so well and I’m thinking about taking him to Cheltenham again.

“I’m going to see how he is. With these older boys, they tell you. Come nearer the time, if he is really well and wants to go there and run I will enter him up. Otherwise, it is whether any of the younger ones surprise us. They haven’t at the moment.

“I am hoping something comes out of the woodwork. We’ve got a really nice mare called My Clementine, she is running in one of the maidens on Sunday, and she is really well. She has been second twice.”

Also high on Coward’s riding wish list on home turf is a good run from James Wyatt. He went through the sales ring as a yearling for 150,000 guineas and was bought by Mick Easterby for just 1,500. A son of Sadler’s Wells, Easterby handed him over to Coward and, after she jumped aboard, he probably won’t get him back.

“I’m looking forward to James Wyatt a lot,” she said. “He’s still a bit of a baby and he had his first run at Alnwick probably a couple of months ago. All went well and it’s all new to him. It will be interesting to see how he comes on from that run. I can’t wait for it.”

A total of 130 entries have been received for a seven-race card, organised by the Yorkshire Area Point-to-Point Club, which begins at noon. The postcode required for satellite navigation is YO60 7TN. Admission is £10 per person, under-14s are free and racecards are £3.