IT IS becoming something of a trend now. Think Rachael Blackmore. Think J.J. Slevin. Think Donie McInerney.

The three most successful conditional jockeys in the land for the past three seasons were non-entities in the point-to-point world, making absolutely no impression.

Such is the extreme competitiveness of that sphere now that rides were scarce, many of the conveyances dodgy and winners as common as hens’ teeth.

Blackmore and Slevin had to be heavily persuaded and were still not convinced that they could make a living when taking a chance at the professional lifestyle. Traditionally, you only turned having made some sort of an impact between the flags.

McInerney was considering going to college, though he had no idea what he might turn his hand to, when Enda Bolger told him he should try a spell in the paid ranks first.

We now know that Blackmore broke new ground when becoming champion conditional in the 2016/’17 season, and she has been shattering the earth with stunning regularity since.

Slevin booted home 20 winners that term and followed up with five more in the subsequent campaign. That wasn’t enough to claim the championship spoils, however, McInerney registering 32 in an unforgettable first full season under rules.

A tally of 21 was enough for McInerney to become the first jockey (since official records were maintained consistently in the mid-‘70s) to win two titles.

It is unlikely, though not impossible, that anyone else managed it before him, even if lower tallies might have been sufficient with considerably less racing. Nowadays, conditionals need to ride 60 winners to lose their claim, as against the 40 required in that era.

He can scarcely believe it but, like the aforementioned Blackmore and Slevin, he has experienced enough of the vicissitudes of a jockey’s life to understand that the real work is starting now and there are no guarantees.

SMALL POND

Being 25, he has the considerable advantage of being less likely to believe he has arrived just because he has done well so far. He is closing in on losing his claim and working on a level pegging with some of the greatest riders that ever got a leg up on a racehorse, in a relatively small pond, will be a challenge. Without the inducement of a few pounds off in a handicap, and with a new crop of conditionals coming behind, he will have to be better.

That doesn’t scare him.

The journey so far has been unconventional, though he is among a growing band of horse racing professionals who have not had any family connection to the sport or even horses growing up.

“My mother works as a receptionist in the hospital in Limerick. My father is retired now but he worked for Limerick County Council,” reveals McInerney.

“A few of the other children around were going on riding ponies on Saturdays. My father said, ‘Sure would you go on and do it?’ I did it for a couple of months and ended up buying my own pony and doing a lot of hunting with the Scarteens, I went pony jumping - I did all that.

“I didn’t know did I want to be a jockey, I just wanted to work with horses. I went to Enda (Bolger)’s when I was 15 and started schooling thoroughbreds. That was some difference to jumping a pony. I probably got addicted to it then.

“I was lucky with Enda though. I was thinking of going back to college. I’d been point-to-pointing for four or five years and getting nothing. I’d four winners from (132) rides. It wouldn’t pay you. You have to think of the bigger picture. It’s great craic but you have to start earning a bit of money too.

CHAMPION CONDITIONAL

“Enda said, ‘Give it a go turning and you can always turn back.’ My first ride was a winner in February. In the first full season I was champion conditional. I thought, when I first turned, it’d be a few quid. I didn’t think it’d take off the way it did.”

Auvergnat provided that initial victory, two days after taking out his licence. The nine-year-old has won four times since then, with McInerney in the plate for all bar one of those. Most memorable was a commanding victory in the Paddy Power Chase at Leopardstown last Christmas.

“Last year I would have said I wanted to ride more winners. But, being realistic about it, when you get down to your three, it gets a bit tougher. Definitely winning the Paddy Power was a big help … It would be no harm to get a few more but it’s a lot easier said than done.

“You need to be on the right horses on them days. Auvergnat was a very lucky horse for me from day one … If he never ever won again for me I will be happy enough. A La Touche, a Paddy Power and two banks races around Punchestown, I can’t complain.”

The Paddy Power was a reminder that Bolger is more than capable of preparing his charges for mainstream success - Gilgamboa and Ballyoisin have registered Grade 1 and 2 triumphs under the Bruree trainer’s tutelage as well - but his facility is focussed on producing banks specialists.

It was what made him and the late John Thomas McNamara such a potent partnership, with the brilliant jockey in thrall to the cross-country challenge also.

Little wonder then that winning the Risk Of Thunder Chase last November on My Hometown was so momentous for everyone involved, not least McInerney. The Punchestown contest is named after the seven-time La Touche Cup winner owned by Sean Connery and trained by Bolger, who rode the horse credited with revitalising interest in cross-country races to three of those victories. Ken Whelan was another regular partner while McNamara was on board for the last, dramatic success in 2002, when Risk Of Thunder was 13.

My Hometown was named after a song Bruce Springsteen dedicated to McNamara at a concert in Limerick in July 2013, as the jockey battled catastrophic injuries suffered in a fall at Cheltenham the previous March that ultimately claimed his life at the age of 41, three years later.

“It was important. I got a good kick out of that, in fairness. He was a horse that had disappointed us. He was so promising as a young horse and then he never really showed much in hurdles and chases and that. But he just sweetened up. In fairness to Enda he was on song for the day.

“I’d say I sat up on him twice before that day. Enda was riding him out himself, jumping him and things like that. My job that day was very easy; just drop the hands and leave him enjoy it, which he did. It was probably the best day I had over the banks.”

Every young horse gets a pop over the replica fences at Howardstown House but it is the manner in which the discipline has reinvigorated the likes of Garde Champetre over the years - and Tiger Roll most spectacularly under the guidance of Gordon Elliott - that is notable.

“There was a couple that come into the yard and after a month they’re different horses, especially them older guys like Cantlow and Josies Orders. It’s something different for them. They are jumping something different all the time and it takes their minds off running. They are concentrating on jumping and they love it really.”

After spells with Charles Byrnes and Robert Tyner, McInerney was based full time with Bolger until about 18 months ago, when his profile raised and his phone began overheating.

Bolger was more than happy to release him a couple of days a week to the likes of Martin Brassil and Ray Hackett, while John McConnell and Michael Winters are others to utilise his talents.

He is hopeful about what the future might hold but, while obviously harbouring big dreams, is realistic when it comes to the odds. All he can hope is that his hard work, and talent, will eventually yield dividends. Above all is putting off injury for as long as possible.

STAY SOUND

“The main thing is if you stay sound at all you will ride plenty. When you get injured there people start forgetting about you and it’s hard to get back. I have been lucky enough. I have been sound since day one. If I just stay sound now and just keep riding as much as I can, and keep improving away all the time … I am probably trying to find one or two horses that will get you into them proper races with a chance.”

While he has been lucky to date in terms of his injury profile, and long may that continue, McInerney fell foul of the Limerick stewards for his use of the whip last month, resulting in a five-day suspension.

WHIP RULES

The introduction of the new rules, whereby more than eight strikes will automatically trigger an inquiry, if not necessarily a ban, has not met with universal approval but McInerney sees no alternative but to observe them as best he can.

“It will take a bit of getting used to. You’re only allowed hit them eight times and only every three strides (before you’ll be called up). You just have to start counting ‘em.

“ If you’re neck-and-neck going to the line and you feel the horse is responding, it’s hard to put it down but it’s gone to the stage that you have to put it down and get bate rather than get the days.

“Some days you’ll forget the numbers and keep going. I mightn’t have had a winner for two months, you might just keep going.

“But it’s like any game, it’s for and against. There’s nothing you can do. They make the rules, you just have to abide by them.”

He thinks of where he might have been, of how the trajectory of his life changed when Bolger made that fateful suggestion less than two and a half years ago.

“I’d no interest really in anything else. I’d be living at home, no car, broke. Now that I look back, I probably wouldn’t have lasted at college anyway because I always liked working. It’s some difference a year makes.

“I just hope things don’t go quiet (when) the claim is gone. You don’t want to look back in five or six years’ time and think, ‘I’m a has-been now!’” he says, laughing but fully cognisant of the truth of the possibility, seeing the struggle around him in the weigh room every day.

“I ride for a lot of smaller lads. It’s probably that bit harder to get on the better horses but you never know. The smaller lads pick up something too and when they do, you hope they might stick with you.”

On all available evidence, there is no reason that they won’t.