HAVING switched from amateur to conditional at the beginning of this season, I’ve been delighted with how things have been going. I had only ridden one winner under rules prior to that but with more opportunities available to me, I’ve had 11 so far this term.

It would be nice to add to that before the end of the season but either way, it’s been a real breakthrough year for me. Neither of my parents had any interest in racing. I got my love for horses through my nanny. She would always have kept a few horses, so there were always horses and ponies around at home.

My uncle and aunt (Kieran and Olive Gaule) were both jockeys, so I would have grown up watching them. All the local lads arounds us in Stradbally would have had ponies. I would only have been nine or 10 when I started riding out for Richie Fitzgerald. He bought and sold Connemara ponies.

I would have ridden ponies for him. It was a great place to learn to get horses jumping. I did that for years, right through secondary school. I’d have gone into racing yards with Kieran and Olive when I was a bit older.

I’d ride out the odd quiet racehorse. I never did any pony racing or anything like that. I mainly worked with the sport horses, although I did go into Mouse Morris to ride out a bit. A local lad who worked down there would have given me a lift up and down.

When I left school. I went to Philip Dempsey for two years. I got a great grounding there. He was a good man to work for. I got to ride work on plenty of experienced handicappers who helped bring me on as a jockey.

After that, I came home and went to work for Declan Queally. I took out my amateur licence and had one ride in a point-to-point. A fortnight later, Covid hit and that basically put an end to my time in Ireland.

Starting strong

Dec advised me to go over to England, as there were more opportunities there for an amateur, especially in the North. On my first point-to-point ride in England, I rode a winner for Jacqueline Coward. I rode five winners from six rides for Jack Teal. After that, things really began to take off for me. I did three seasons point-to-pointing in the north of England.

In all, I rode 25 point-to-point winners. In 2022, I joined trainer Nicky Richards as stable amateur. As well as continuing to ride in point-to-points, I had four spins on the track. At the end of the 2022/23 season, I decided I’d go to America for the summer. I wanted to make sure my weight stayed in check but without any point-to-points at that time of the year in England, I knew opportunities would be limited.

I actually ended up spending that summer in New Zealand, after seeing a job advert on Facebook. In June, I went over to ride for trainers Paul Nelson and Corrina McDougal. I stayed for six months, the duration of their jumps season. During that time, I rode eight winners from 30 or 40 rides. It was a great experience. The jumps are very different out there; a bit like cross country courses.

I returned to England in November 2023, going to work for Lucinda Russell. I rode a couple of point-to-point winners and had nine rides on the track. Lucinda advised me to get my conditional licence at the start of this season, as she felt she would be able to give me more opportunities. It’s a decision I’ve never regretted. Lucinda has been true to her word, putting me up on some nice horses throughout the year.

I rode my first winner as a conditional on Destiny Is All for her at Ayr in October. Last month, I rode Bold Light to win at Kelso for the stable in front of the ITV cameras. That would have been my biggest winner to date.

Good connections

I was very fortunate to pick up a spare ride for Joel Parkinson and Sue Smith towards the start of the year. I won on that one and ended up riding another two winners from my first three rides for them. Joel and Sue have turned out to be great supporters who continue to use me.

I’ve ridden six of my 11 winners this season for their stable. It’s often said that you are only ever as good as the people around you and I’ve been very lucky to surround myself with great people. Apart from Lucinda, Joel and Sue, Peter Scudamore, Michael Scudamore, my agent Richard Hale and jockey coach Brian Harding have been really good to me.

Peter has been a massive help in terms of helping me progress as a rider. He will always go through a race and explain what I did right or wrong. He never holds it against me if I make a mistake, we just move on.

Lucinda and Peter don’t look past their own when it comes to jockeys. I’ve had some fantastic opportunities during the season and I’m very grateful for that. I like to think that as I continue to improve as a rider I will be able to repay the faith they have shown in me.

As long as things keep going so well, I have no aspirations to do anything else. I’m enjoying my riding at the moment, so hopefully I can build on this season. The plan is to stay in England for the summer, pick up as many rides as I can and maybe ride a few more winners. If I can do that, the main aim would be to stay injury free next season, build further contacts and with a bit of luck, improve on the number of winners I rode this term.

Jack was in conversation with John O’Riordan.