Steve Drowne

Born on December 10, 1971. the son of a Devon farmer, Steve Drowne is a popular, articulate man who, aged 29 in 2001, remarked that he hoped to ride for another twenty years.

That season, he had set himself the target of 700 rides and 50 winners. The cost he paid was hardly seeing Clare, his wife of three years, and having no social life.

Then the stable jockey for Mick Channon, Steve would drive the 15 miles to West Ilsley to ride work each Tuesday & Friday. Mick would start at 5 a.m. and Steve would sit on five or six horses. On the other days of the week he would ride out for other trainers. There was seldom pay involved.

A fall at Folkestone the previous June had ended that particular season.

He was told that he had broken his leg and neck.

Thinking his career was over, Steve spent the next two hours wondering what he would do with the rest of his life. Then the doctor told him that they had made a mistake with the x-ray and that his neck wasn't broken after all.

While Steve recovered, Mick Channon hired Australian Craig Williams.

Williams did well, winning on Queen's Logic at Newbury, but, at Royal Ascot the following season, a fully fit Steve was back in the saddle as Williams served a suspension.

Steve and Queen's Logic won. This was Steve's third Royal Ascot winner (and Mick Channon's seventh). A day later Steve rode his fourth when Harmonic Way - despite being drawn hard against the stands' rail - won the Cork & Orrey Stakes at 10/1, beating the Frankie Dettori-ridden favourite, Three Points, by a length. 

It was at Ascot that Steve had his first group winner, CD Europe in the Coventry Stakes.

Then Channon and Williams had a fall-out, leaving Steve to ride most of the stable's 130 horses. 

Steve felt like he was starting all over again. In hospital he'd fretted about losing the contacts he'd spent years building up. Then he had struggled to regain his fitness and riding weight of 8 st. 4 lb. Often he went more than 48 hours without a proper meal.

Channon then said of Steve: 'He's a worker. He hasn't got where he is just like that.'

Steve covers about 70,000 miles a year, most of them straining against a deadline. One year he had four car crashes.

When Sunday racing was first introduced, many jockeys proposed either a day off each week or only riding at one meeting a day.

Steve said at the time: 'It's unthinkable for me to turn down a ride. I can't agree with any limits on jockeys but you just have to hope people are sensible enough and don't kill themselves.'

The very next day he was up at 4 a.m to ride work for Channon then drove to Southwell's afternoon meeting before driving on to an evening meeting elsewhere. He got home at midnight.

'It's funny,' he said. 'The people out there think all you do is turn up at two o'clock, ride a few horses and go home again.'

In reality, Steve had wanted to be a National Hunt Jockey and was aghast when his father had told him that he was too small. Instead, he turned to the Flat, but took a while to get going.

'I didn't ride my first winner until I was 19,' he recalled. 'A lot of lads would have ridden out their claim by then, but I didn't do so until I was 24.'

From Monday, September 1, 2003, jockeys were unable to use their mobile phones while on racecourse property and during racing hours.

Steve said at the time: 'We (the jockeys) have suggested that we should be able to use our own phones in a restricted area. So far as I'm concerned, they can supervise that area as much as they like and even have access to my calls, but to run our lives properly, we need that concession.'

Steve enjoyed his best weekend ever when, in October 2005, he won the Cambridgeshire on Blue Monday before, next day, winning the Prix de l'Abbaye on Avonbridge (Steve's second victory in the race).

He said after: 'To win two big races like this is something special. These days, it's difficult getting on a proper group one horse if you're not involved with Coolmore or Godolphin.' 

Speaking of the Longchamp atmosphere, he added: 'It feels as if 60 per cent of the crowd is British and Irish and the whole day seems like an international match. They cheer the winners in there like nowhere else and you almost feel like you're riding for the country.'

In June, 2006, Steve returned to Longchamp to ride Blue Monday to victory in a Group 3 race.

Friday the thirteenth, 2007, was not unlucky for Steve. Riding Sakhee's Secret for the octogenarian Bridget Swire, he stormed clear at Newmarket to win the Darley July Cup at 9/2.

Biggest wins

1993: Great St Wilfrid Handicap – Hard To Figure 

1997: Ascot Stakes - Sea Freedom

2000: Coventry Stakes – Cd Europe 

2001: Queen Mary Stakes – Queen’s Logic 

2001: Cork and Orrery Stakes – Nomadic Way 

2003: Windsor Castle Stakes – Holborn 

2003: Bunbury Cup – Patavellian 

2004: Cecil Frail Stakes – Tante Rose 

2005: Zetland Gold Cup – Blue Monday 

2005: Cambridgeshire Handicap – Blue Monday  

2005: Prix de l’Abbaye – Avonbridge 

2007: King George V Handicap – Heron Bay 

2007: July Cup – Sakhee’s Secret 

2008: Windsor Castle Stakes – Flashmans Papers 

2008: Britannia Stakes – Fifteen Love 

2009: Cecil Frail Stakes – Festoso 

2010: Bessborough Stakes – Cill Rialaig 

In the spring of 2012, Steve fainted at home.

When it happened a second time, a specialist was unable to rule out a seizure. His licences to ride and drive were withdrawn.

Tests showed that at the time of passing out, he had been suffering from an enlarged heart, caused by a virus.

Then began a fight to persuade the authorities to over-rule the original findings.

Meanwhile, because he could not get insurance, he was unable to ride out for any trainers.

'It was an insurance issue and the BHA would not allow me to ride until I was cleared by the DVLA,' said Steve, who, by then, had become joint president of the Professional Jockeys' Association. 

'All the evidence showed that I was perfectly fit, but the DVLA wouldn't budge. 

'Trying to persuade them to change their minds has been incredibly frustrating. I'd call every day but was getting nowhere. Eventually, I asked Claire Perry (MP for Devizes) to intervene. She understood my predicament, contacted the DVLA and thanks to her I'm on the road again. Claire was so unhappy with the way the DVLA handled my case that she has made an official complaint.'

Happily, both licences were eventually returned and Steve was able to carry on with his career.

Just a year into his return to the saddle, (December 2013) Steve was again badly injured when his mount, Jwala, on which he'd won the Nunthorpe, suffered a fatal fall in the Hong Kong Sprint at Sha Tin. Steve broke a collarbone and punctured a lung.

He recovered to once again pick up his career: his first winner back was Jarlath at Kempton, March, 2014.

Steve signed off in style as a jockey when scoring on Met By Moonlight at Lingfield on December 31, 2017, the final Flat race of the year. The 46-year-old rode more 1,400 winners during his 27-year career including six Group 1 wins. 

Just one week after hanging up his riding boots he embarked on a second career in racing, joining the BHA as a stipendiary steward.

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