Riding out point-to-pointers and an interest in show jumping at a young age led to Charlie Deutsch – who is now widely viewed as one of the best horsemen currently riding - being bitten by the racing bug as a youngster.
Talking to Niall Hannity on the latest instalment of Sporting Life’s David Power Jockeys’ Cup Podcast, Deutsch revealed that an early love for racing emerged from skipping out to ride whenever he could.
He said: “I used to ride out at Charlie Longsdon's on weekends when I was 15 and I managed to get two point-to-pointers of my own and I used to ride them out on my lunch break. They both won races for me and that was really satisfying because I could kind of see a different side to it, galloping them every day and working out how to ride them in their races.
“I was always fascinated by jumping growing up, I'd tack up the pony after school and then go off and find stuff to jump around the countryside, basically.
“Sometimes you'd find out the hard way, but I just found it interesting and trying to work out if you did stop or fall off, why it happened.”
Following a spell with various trainers including Milton Harris, Tom Lacey and Sam Drinkwater, Deutsch suffered something of a crisis of confidence before forming a lasting link with Venetia Williams, despite an ignominious start.
He recalled: “I just thought, ‘oh, maybe I'm not good enough because it's not happening, I've been doing it three years’.
“I got a ride in a boys’ race on a horse first time over fences at Chepstow and it came up about ten strides away from the fence and I actually kind of sat back and I jumped off the back actually because I thought ‘this isn't going to end well’.
“And I thought, ‘oh, that's game over, that's my one chance’ but the horse actually unseated a few jockeys afterwards, so it wasn't too bad.
“And then my next ride was a horse called Aachen at Cheltenham - I sat in the bath all night and all morning to do the weight - and he popped out and won."
Deutsch has now been with Williams for 10 seasons, and is grateful for the support from the trainer, who has recorded the most wins by a lady trainer in the history of National Hunt Racing, and the late Liam Treadwell who was a big help in Deutsch’s formative years.
Deutsch said: “It's just quite cutthroat if you don't have a bit of loyalty and I think every jockey would ride better if they just had more consistency to their career.
“When I started there, Liam was riding a lot of the yard’s horses and he was great - he was the best for giving me advice. We miss him a lot. Venetia will always be honest and tell me if she isn’t happy with a ride and I quite like that.
"And I just try and explain what I was thinking and why I did what I did at the time, and then she can make her own mind up. There's no point saying something if you don't believe it."
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