James (Jimmy) Moffatt was born on June 14, 1972, the son of Cartmel trainer Dudley Moffatt. He grew up in a training yard and won his first race on his first ride in public, on Silver’s Girl for his father in an apprentices’ race at Ayr on April 13, 1989.
That victory was on the Flat but he became far better known as a National Hunt jockey. He rode over jumps for 14 years, during which time he rode 78 winners, including 1995 County Hurdle and Scottish Champion Hurdle, both on Home Counties, and Wetherby’s West Yorkshire Hurdle in 1993 on Deb’s Ball. Both those horses were trained by his father.
Well known for his tactical nous over hurdles, his County Hurdle victory was voted one of the best 12 riding performances, Flat and jumping, of that year.
He won three novice hurdles on Howard Johnson’s Morceli in the 1993/94 campaign and the pair were leading contenders for that season’s Sun Alliance Hurdle at Cheltenham, only to part company in the closing stages.
Jimmy had the final rides of his career at his home track on August 26, 2002, on Silver Howe (fifth) and Ball Games (third), both trained by his father. He took over the family’s training operation from his father later that year, having worked and gained experience with the likes of Tommy Stack, Sue and Harvey Smith, Howard Johnson and Jim Old.
He has gone on to become a highly successful jumping trainer, based at Pit Farm Stables in Cartmel. He is one of a select few to have both ridden and trained a Cheltenham Festival winner, having won the William Hill Trophy Handicap Chase with Chief Dan George in 2010. Chief Dan George also gave him a Grade 1 success over hurdles in the 2007 Sefton Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree.
Probably Jimmy’s best-known horse so far is Highland Lodge, a standing dish over the Grand National fences. He won Becher Chase in 2015, finished second in it (beaten a nose) in 2016, and third in 2017.