Jonathan Riddell did little to shed the tag of jumps jockey with his winning ride in the Manawatu Steeplechase but is hopeful the label will be buried come spring time.At his first ride of the jumps season, Riddell partnered Proposition to victory at Awapuni on Saturday but was adamant his participation in jumps racing would remain limited.Instead much of Riddell's future thoughts revolve around one horse, New Zealand's star three-year-old Jimmy Choux.Riddell rode Jimmy Choux to Group One victor

Jonathan Riddell did little to shed the tag of jumps jockey with his winning ride in the Manawatu Steeplechase but is hopeful the label will be buried come spring time.

At his first ride of the jumps season, Riddell partnered Proposition to victory at Awapuni on Saturday but was adamant his participation in jumps racing would remain limited.

Instead much of Riddell's future thoughts revolve around one horse, New Zealand's star three-year-old Jimmy Choux.

Riddell rode Jimmy Choux to Group One victories in the Two Thousand Guineas and New Zealand Derby and gained a third win at that level in the Rosehill Guineas in Sydney.

Jimmy Choux's wins gained Riddell much exposure but towards the end of the horse's successes the rider became tired of being continually referred to as a jumps jockey.

"It was annoying me when it sort of kept coming up, I was getting sick of it really," Riddell told NZPA.

"It came to a point where it didn't seem to matter what I did on the flat."

Riddell will finish in the top 20 on the national jockeys' premiership when the season ends on July 31. He is currently on 50 wins for the season, of which only three are over fences.

He will be the leading rider in terms of stakes earned by his mounts with his tally presently standing at $NZ3.2 million ($A2.45 million). That easily heads off the likes of James McDonald, whose mounts have so earned $2.8 million, and Opie Bosson ($2.7 million).

Admittedly Jimmy Choux earned a great chunk of Riddell's figure but another feature race to come his way was the $1 million Karaka Million for two-year-olds at Ellerslie aboard Fort Lincoln.

Making those statistics all the more creditable is that Riddell rarely rides at less than 57kg. Weight has been his biggest problem throughout his career but the 32-year-old said not pushing himself to ride lighter had probably prolonged his life in the saddle.

"I miss a few winners because of that but Im happy with that. Its probably helped me stay in the game a bit longer than I might have."

Riddell admits riding over fences could be considered risky when he has the Cox Plate campaign of Jimmy Choux in the late winter and spring to look forward to but he was restricting most of his jump mounts to the leading stable of Paul Nelson.

"Im basically only riding Pauls horse's. I might even be more selective than I was last year - there's a bigger picture later in the year," he said.

"Jimmy Choux is a dream horse to have but I know that you can't put all your eggs in one basket either."