CHRISTMAS proved a very fruitful one for me, as I rode three winners over the festive period. I was delighted to finish 2015 with a victory at Punchestown on New Year’s Eve aboard Jazz Ranger and didn’t have to wait too long to get on the board for 2016, as Good As Gold provided a winner on New Year’s Day at Fairyhouse. So far this season I have partnered eight winners, to add to the 10 of the previous campaign.

Both of my parents were keen hunters and tell me that I could ride as soon as I was born. I know that I was out with the local hunt by the age of five and a year or so later I had graduated to pony club and show jumping/eventing.

I continued with the latter disciplines until my early teens at which point I moved on to riding racehorses. I will never forget the first occasion I schooled a horse over fences, at my neighbour Moses McCabe’s. It was a feeling like no other I had ever experienced before and I knew at that moment that all I ever wanted to be was a jump jockey.

As soon as I was 16, old enough to attend RACE, I finished up in school (after my Junior Cert) and went up to Kildare to enrol in the training academy. During my time in RACE I was sent out to Michael Grassick’s yard, where I learned a great deal about pace and riding work on horses. It was quite a large operation in those days, with upwards of 50 horses in training. However, even at that early stage I knew I didn’t have the build to remain a flat jockey, so I signed on as an apprentice with Gordon Elliott.

FUTURE OVER FENCES

In 2010, I went to Gordon’s where I quickly moved on to schooling horses and riding over jumps. Although I had a handful of rides on the flat, it was primarily to gain experience of race riding, as my future clearly lay under National Hunt rules.

One thing led to another and after a year with Gordon, I returned home to Wexford to work for Colm Murphy. I spent three seasons in my new job before moving to Britain for a couple of months in 2014. It didn’t take me long to realise that it wasn’t for me and I was on my travels again, this time to the county Monaghan stables of the late Oliver Brady.

Sadly, the boss was suffering from ill health at the time and I didn’t get to spend that much time with him before he passed away. Anthony McCann took over the training at Shabra Stables and he was very good to me, rewarding my hard work with plenty of opportunities to race ride.

I built up a great partnership with one particular horse, Shabra’s Bertoini, winning three races in the 2014/15 season. My very first winner had come prior to that, aboard Couleur De La Loi for Michael Cleary at Tipperary in July 2014. In total, I rode 10 winners last season, my first year to ride winners on the track. Having taken the decision to ride as a freelance for a time, I rode for a number of different yards during 2015, before joining the Noel Meade stable in August 2015, having been recommended by Barry Geraghty.

NOEL MEADE

My new boss is a great man to work for and a real gentleman. I credit Noel (Meade) with much of my improvement as a jockey. He has been very fair with me and given me every opportunity to make it at the top level. I rode my biggest winner to date, aboard Tulsa Jack in the Cork Grand National, which was also my first winner for the boss.

Noel’s insight and advice is invaluable to a young jockey such as myself and riding good horses undoubtedly makes one a better pilot. I have been very fortunate to school horses alongside the likes of Paul Carberry, Mark Enright, Sean Flanagan and Ger Fox, all top class jockeys in their own right. My agent Ciaran O’Toole has been fantastic, helping me get on horses with live chances and arguing my case at every opportunity. Plenty of trainers such as Paul Stafford and Pat Fahy have been very loyal to me - if I was to name them all, I would be here all day!

I am very thankful to each and every one for their continued support. Hopefully, I can continue to progress and ride plenty of winners this season, with a view to giving the conditionals title a good go next season. I was thrilled to be able to ride two winners for Pat (Fahy) over Christmas (Jazz Ranger/Good As Gold), while my first ride for leading owners Gigginstown was also a winning one, as Ice Cold Soul scored at Leopardstown over the holiday period. Hopefully, that is just the first of many for both Mr O’Leary and Mr Meade.

Jonathan Moore was in conversation with John O’Riordan.