Ex-Jockey's Extraordinary Far East Feats for Charity

We have become aware of an issue with users who have a Microsoft email address not receiving Racing Post newsletters. We apologise for the inconvenience and while we work with Microsoft to resolve this issue, please enjoy today's edition of the Front Runner, Chris Cook's regular morning newsletter to Racing Post+ Ultimate subscribers. Not a Racing Post+ subscriber? Click here to join today and also receive our Ultimate Daily emails plus our full range of fantastic website and newspaper content. Subscribers can get more great insight, tips and racing chat from The Front Runner every Monday to Friday. Those who aren't yet signed up for The Front Runner should click here to sign up and start receiving emails immediately! This might seem like a stretch, but do you remember Tolworth Hurdle day in 1990? Forest Sun won the big race, while Cool Ground got up in a three-way photo for the Mildmay Cazalet Memorial against Nick The Brief and Rowlandsons Jewels – all great names if you were into racing at that time. The novice hurdle which opened that card was especially memorable, if you happened to see it. General Pershing tried to make all and seemed to settle the matter between the final two flights, pulling clear by a dozen lengths or more. But the cheers of those who had backed him at 4-1 died in their throats as he clipped the last and fell. Steve Smith Eccles, who found the prize dropping into his lap, joked with a TV interviewer that he'd always known he was going to win. One report the following day called General Pershing the unluckiest loser of the season. His 20-year-old rider was Jo Lodder, a 5lb claimer trying to establish himself and build a reputation. He remounted General Pershing, as was allowed at the time, to claim fourth-place prize-money of £201.50 and told himself to shake off the experience and focus on his other big chance on the card, Kameo Style in a handicap hurdle. Kameo Style also hit the front in the straight but then got collared on the run-in by Declan Murphy aboard Coworth Park. What might have been, eh? In a parallel universe, Lodder got a Saturday double at Sandown and who knows what may have followed after that. Racecourse fame proved elusive for Lodder but he got in touch last week to describe his extraordinary recent career as an ultra-runner in the Far East. When Covid hit, he was overweight and unfocused, making boozy claims to his friends that he could "run across China" if he put his mind to it. Incredibly, in his mid-50s, he has now made good on it, covering 3,140km in 60 days and raising money for charity along the way. Among the many who turned out to welcome Lodder as he completed his run in December at Hong Kong's Kai Tak stadium was Hollie Doyle, in the area to pursue her day job at Sha Tin and Happy Valley racecourses but also a friend of Lodder's from way back. Indeed, he can claim to have introduced her parents, Mark and Caroline, as he long ago steered Mark towards a job at Frank Jordan's stable, where Caroline was already on the staff. Lodder still had hopes for his own riding career at that time, but it didn't work out. "The first three years, I was doing pretty well. Then I got a few injuries and there was a really nasty virus in the yard." But he also describes how he "sabotaged" himself with a drinking habit that took him many years to overcome. "I used to drink a lot. I got into a bad way. If I wasn't an alcoholic, I was close to it. I piled on weight, I was up to about 88kg [13 and a half stone]." While drinking, he would regale his friends with tales of his time in the saddle. "Someone told me, stop being an 'I did' person and start being an 'I do' person." It was a helpful spur. By 2021, when he was 50 and working in property in Hong Kong, he had begun to establish himself as a distance runner of note in the region. The South China Morning Post once referred to him as "Lodder the Plodder". The toughness which every jump jockey hopes to exhibit was sorely tested by the latest task he set himself, as he was suffering from pain and swelling in a leg from day two onwards. "The hardest time was actually when I was feeling better. My mind started wandering, it started playing games with me. "While I was in pain, I had to deal with that and my mind focused on what I was doing. When I had no pain, that's when my mind went all over the shop. Every bus that came past, it was saying: 'You could get on this bus. What does it matter? Who would know?'" But he stuck with it and the result is a feeling of achievement as well as major fatigue, not to mention a six-figure sum raised for disability charities. At some stage, he is aware there will be a nagging desire to identify another challenging mission and one idea is to run a complete circuit around the edge of Wales, perhaps in aid of the Injured Jockeys Fund. Just don't hold him to it until he's fully recovered. "It won't be for a little while . . ." Those who aren't yet signed up for The Front Runner can click here to sign up and start receiving emails immediately. Read these next: Top hurdlers expected to clash on a Cheltenham card on Saturday that could turn out to be a mini version of the festival 'It's worth a shot' - Rebecca Curtis not shirking the challenge as she confirms Gold Cup prep for Haiti Couleurs 'It was a Mickey Mouse race' - Barry Connell bullish about Marine Nationale's Champion Chase prospects after watching Clarence House