HE was on the brink of giving up his dream and could have been fixing your leaky sink as a plumber.
But now James Doyle is making millions around the world as one of the top jockeys in racing.
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And he is all set to have a week to remember at Royal Ascot after landing one of the biggest jobs in the sport.
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Doyle, 36, is retained rider to Wathnan Racing, the big-spending stable of Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the billionaire Emir of Qatar.
Racing followers will know the Middle Eastern money men expect big returns on their big investments.
So it’s down to Doyle to ensure Wathnan’s recently-purchased 20-odd horses at substantial cost win at the Royal meeting, starting next Tuesday.
It’s a bit more pressure than what he could have had mending boilers.
Doyle, who has won almost £37MILLION in races in Britain alone, was about to pack racing in altogether a few years ago.
The daily grind of driving up and down the country just to get a ride on one no-hoper was getting him down.
And in an interview with Sun Racing columnist Matt Chapman on At The Races, he revealed how he genuinely considered hanging up his whip for good.
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He said: “It was hard when all I dreamed about was being a jockey – but being a good jockey.
“I found myself riding 20 winners a year and it doesn’t mean you’re a bad jockey but at the end of the day…
“I purchased a house when I was quite young and financial pressures… I loved doing what I was doing but it became crazy driving four hours to ride one horse at Beverley and then driving home and doing it all again the next day.
“It didn’t make sense so I sought advice on what other things would be available to me… and then suddenly this whole plumbing thing went crazy.”
Brilliantly, in the same video Doyle’s mum said the though of him becoming a plumber was, quite simply, a ‘stupid idea’.
And now it’s clear he made the right decision.
Wathnan have got the cheque book out and provided Doyle with several top rides for the biggest week of Flat racing all year.
Among the standouts are Gregory in the Ascot Gold Cup, a race Wathnan won last year with Courage Mon Ami, and the £1m Rogue Lightning in the King Charles III Stakes.
While Shartash makes bags of appeal in the 6f Queen Elizabeth II Stakes – where victory is worth a monumental £567,100.
For the record, Doyle could probably expect about 10 per cent of that for his own back pocket.
A bit more than he could have expected for a few minutes’ work as a plumber.
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