'Boxing is a filthy game' - the advice that brought Franny Norton back from a career crossroads

Franny Norton has recalled the career crossroads that could have taken him down a very different path when he was selected to represent England at boxing at the 1998 Commonwealth Games and offered a career as a professional fighter.

Norton was speaking to the Racing Post for a major interview in Sunday's newspaper on the eve of his biggest week of the year at Chester, where he has ridden nearly double the number of winners of any other modern-day jockey, and discussed his friendship with Frankie Dettori, his unusual route into the sport from a deprived background in Liverpool and his difficulties finding his feet again after he rode out his claim in 1994.

After managing just 11 winners that year, Norton fell into a rut until a trainer turned him down for a ride because of his drinking. He responded by turning his back on alcohol and getting back into boxing as part of plans to turn his career around. It worked – until he got so good at boxing that it was taking him away from racing.

"I was getting rides here and there, but then the boxing took off," he said. "I boxed in the ABAs [Amateur Boxing Association finals] and then got picked for the England squad for the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur [in 1998].

"It was starting to escalate and I'll never forget Mick Channon rang me up to ask if I wanted to ride a horse for him at Sandown and I did. At that point I was thinking, 'Do I want to be a boxer or a jockey?' I was at a crossroads and then I got asked if I wanted to be a pro fighter, which made me really lost."

It took some blunt advice to convince Norton that racing was the right path – a decision that has been vindicated by passing 50 winners in 20 of the last 23 years.

"I rang a good friend of mine, John Naylor, who wanted to be a jockey but was too big and became a pro fighter instead. Things weren't going so well in racing and I was thinking about giving the boxing a go until he said, 'Franny, don't even think about it, boxing is a filthy game'. He told me to get my head down in racing and it was the best advice I've had in my life. All of a sudden, Dandy Nicholls was looking for a jockey and I was back in the game." 

Read more from Franny Norton in The Big Read, available in Sunday's newspaper or online for Members' Club Ultimate subscribers from 6pm on Saturday. Click here to sign up.

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