I take my hat off to Crowley as he closes in on first title

I'm not quite counting my winnings yet, but it looks as if Jim Crowley is going to be very hard to catch now.

His September total of 45 and counting heading to Newcastle on Friday night is pretty extraordinary – I gather that's the best Fred Archer and Sir Gordon Richards managed and even AP never managed more than 41 – and so I take my hat off to him.

The travelling can obviously be very punishing, and Jim will have spent a lot on planes and helicopters to make that side of things easier – but a lot of the hardest work is done by the agent, which in Jim's case is 'Bony' Hind, my former agent and the one who tipped me off that I should have a few quid on when Jim was 50-1.