“Even Rory McIlroy has a coach.”

These were the words of Denis Coakley, father of Ross, after the in-form apprentice guided Chillie Billie to a smooth success in a seven-furlong handicap at Naas 10 days ago.

Think of any professional sportsperson on the planet and they have a guiding hand. The likes of McIlroy, Djokovic, Bolt, Taylor, Messi and Brogan have more than one. A litany of coaches and mentors - a support system.

Top-tier jockeys undoubtedly have their sounding boards. In the latter part of his career, Johnny Murtagh employed a fitness director and a nutritionist. Ruby Walsh always talks to his father, Ted, about his rides and is a regular in the rehabilitation gym at Santry, doing his work under the eagle eye of Enda King.

But the notion of professional jockey coaches, particularly for young amateurs and apprentices, is a very recent phenomenon. Britain has led the way, with every apprentice being assigned a coach. Thanks to those great unsung heroes, Frank Moran and Helen O’Sullivan of the Irish Jockeys’ Trust, two men have become the Irish pioneers, and a process for a formal approach to coaching jockeys is under way.

Warren O’Connor and Gordon Power are astute choices, because they know about both ends of the spectrum when it comes to being at the mercy of Dame Fortune’s whims.

Their experience gives them the expertise to work on improving a youngster’s ability to race-ride but also to deal with whatever else a tough and unsentimental game might throw at them.

They are inspirations.

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Since its inception 40 years ago, the IJT has been supporting jockeys past and present that have fallen on hard times or are struggling to move on with the next phase of their lives. The majority of retired riders cannot afford to sit around with their feet up when their careers are done.

A key element of this approach is sourcing work, education and training opportunities. So when Moran and O’Sullivan noted the success of the British Horseracing Authority’s first jockey-coaching course, which licensed 23 coaches, they enquired about the possibility of sending some people from this side of the Irish Sea when a second course was announced.

The BHA’s vocational training manager, Gill Greaves agreed to keep two of the 10 slots for candidates deemed suitable by the IIJ.

O’Connor and Power were already indebted to the IJT. The former is forever thankful for their help in overcoming serious issues with alcohol, cocaine and Crohn’s Disease, and getting him back on his feet afterwards.

The latter has also had work and education opportunities sent his way when his nascent career came to a shuddering halt after suffering a freak injury during a race that left him blind in one eye.

They were invited to interview but received no special treatment, as the BHA template was used to judge their suitability.

The pair got the green light and underwent a training programme of two Mondays a month at the British Racing School in Newmarket and Northern Racing College in Doncaster, starting in the second week of January and finishing on May 11th.

Others on the course included Michael Hills, Cathy Gannon, Alex Greaves and Kim Tinkler. The Irish boys relished it and flourished under the expert tutelage of Sue Ringrose and Yogi Breisner. They will receive their certificates next Friday.

Common sense prevailing, this is only the start.

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Gordon Power grew up in Dunmore East, Co Waterford and dreamt of being a jockey. He went to RACE in 1994 as a 15-year-old and had spells with Jeremy Harley and Kevin Prendergast. He also spent a couple of winters in Dubai riding for Satish Seemar and Kiaran McLaughlin. In 2002, Jim Bolger offered him a job as second jockey and he took off.

“I had great success with Jim all that year,” reflects Power. “I had good handicap winners, the likes of the Golden Pages as it was at the time in Leopardstown, the Guinness Gold Cup in Tralee; there was a big fillies’ race there on what is now Champions’ Day at Leopardstown that I won for him.”

He was challenging hard for the champion apprentice title when heading down to Listowel in September.

“It was a small field and just as we swung out of the back, where there’s a sweeping bend into the straight, the horse in front of me disappeared through the rail. I was just on his quarters.

“Whatever way the horse went through it, the rail came up in one big section and came into my path as I was following. It struck me straight in the left eye. I was knocked out for five minutes. When I woke up I was on my way to Tralee Hospital.”

There was no pain whatsoever as the nerves were shattered by the severity of the impact. He was transferred to Cork and then to the Mater, undergoing three operations. The first required 27 stitches to be inserted across the eyeball. The rest were designed to accelerate the healing but it soon became clear that the sight would not return.

It was a bitter blow but context was just around the corner.

“My good friend got killed nearly after that… Kieran Kelly, who I lived with for a long time. That put everything into perspective. He was a very good friend of mine and when he had his accident, he didn’t come out of it. At least I can still ride out. I can do every aspect of the job apart from putting colours onto myself.”

Bolger was quick to offer his support, in the form of a job as work rider. He is now one of the Coolcullen maestro’s most experienced people when it comes to teaching and preparing his valuable crop of thoroughbreds.

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Warren O’Connor will watch today’s Coral-Eclipse Stakes and the memories will come rushing back. He was just 24 when he propelled Kooyonga to become only the second filly after Pebbles to win this race in 1992.

He had ridden her to success in the Irish 1000 Guineas and Coronation Stakes the previous year and the former champion apprentice was on a roll.

Son of Wexford-based trainer Jimmy, O’Connor graduated from Liam Browne’s legendary school of hard knocks. A job as first jockey to Noel Meade didn’t work out with Tu Va enduring a lean spell but when Major Victor McCalmont retained him for his horses in 1990, McCalmont’s trainer Michael Kauntze invited him to ride out at his yard on a regular basis.

That was the start of a wonderfully-fruitful six-year relationship that yielded four Group 1 successes, plenty of other winners and a just-touched-off second in the Epsom Oaks on Royal Ballerina, until Kauntze handed in his licence. Not that he knew it, but at 28, his best days were behind him.

As the opportunities began to dry up, O’Connor rode abroad, spending two years in Germany. Already battling chronic injury, as well as Crohn’s Disease caused by a loss of discipline with regard to maintaining his weight and opting to vomit whatever he had eaten instead, he couldn’t handle his fall from grace and fell foul to destructive temptation.

In 2006 he became the first Irish-based jockey to fail a drugs test. The shame enveloped him.

“I’m very lucky,” insists O’Connor now. “I’ve had great help and it’s great to be back out the other side and back in a job that I’m really, really passionate about.

“I have so much to give young guys now. I worked so hard. I made a lot of money and was very successful. But I ended up, even as a flat jockey, with a lot of injuries due to falls. I ended up with osteoporosis and Crohn’s. Every fall I got something broke with me and I snapped.

“Every time I was kick-starting, stopping, going, stopping, going. Then the demons came into my life with the cocaine, with the drink. It destroyed me. When I had to retire in 2006 with the illness I just couldn’t deal with things at all. Everything had crumbled down around me.

“My career was gone belly-up and I was in the doldrums. I lost everything and I thought there was no way back in life. Fair play to the Injured Jockeys’ Trust, they’ve given me a great chance in life.

“To come out the other side… I think I have a lot there for the younger generation coming up. The highs, the lows. You can come out of all this. You can get through these things without picking up a drink, without picking up a drug. Point them in the right direction.”

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Power maintains that he was made for this job.

GP: “My career was stopped when things were going well and I always felt that I had more to give. When I was told about this course I jumped at the opportunity.

“Our role as a coach is to improve the young jockeys’ skill and technique or race-riding. We’ve a kid coming up to us, we have a one-to-one meeting. I’d ask the rider what he feels is the weakest point of his riding or what he feels he needs to work on.

“We discuss what we think we should do and come up with a session plan from there. We set a goal to work towards. If they can improve it gives them lots of confidence.

“These kids are thrown in at a young age into the game and they must need a bit of guidance really, the right direction. They need to feel there’s someone at the end of the phone when they come out of a race that they feel something didn’t go right, that there’s someone there that can help.

“We’re not only a coach. We’re a mentor for them as well.”

Knowing adversity is an obvious benefit in that regard.

“Racing is funny. You can be flying one minute and next thing the whole thing could just stop for a while. Lads start feeling half-depressed. That’s where we can come along… it’s all about giving them lots of confidence. It’s guidance more than anything.”

O’Connor reveals that he used Tommy Carmody as an unofficial coach and mentor in his early years. He even flew him to Ascot when Kooyonga won the Coronation. They went through tapes. Carmody advised and kept his young friend centred. As O’Connor began to travel more in search of work, the bond broke. The safety net was gone.

WOC: “As a coach, I’m a trained professional. There’s the coaching of race-riding, fitness, managing the career-development process.

“But there might be other issues. It’s not just about the race-riding. Managing their life and having a life without just work either. I was a workaholic from a very young age and it was pure madness really. I didn’t know how to enjoy myself. There’s a balance in life too and you have to find it.

“Especially with the dieting. Some kids have to diet so hard. I ended up bulimic. That was my way. I was as fit as a flea when I was young but when the bulimia came in, it was just an easier option. It’s unbelievable how easy you can fall into these bloody things.

“I went to England and I hadn’t Tommy. I say to the lads, if they’ve problems in the yard, come talk to me. And they do. It is so important mentally to get things out, to talk about what’s going on in your head.

“I’ve been talking to a lot of trainers about this and they think it’s a very good idea.”

Power has worked with Donagh O’Connor, Gearoid Brouder and Daniel Redmond. O’Connor has a burgeoning crew of regulars including Coakley and Caroline Murtagh, the first female to win the Apprentice Derby.

Trainer John Larkin and Coakley snr were quick to credit O’Connor’s part in Chillie Billie’s win.

“Things weren’t going too good for Ross Coakley but we got through it, we talked about it and we keep in touch every day. We go through the videos. It’s amazing. He’s riding like a demon. His confidence is booming.

“We watched (the horse) and I said to Ross ‘Would you not say to John would he mind if you dropped him in, just to get him to switch off.’ He was doing too much. It’s amazing and it worked out. I was there too and it was brilliant. I got such a buzz from it. It was like riding a winner.

“Even when I was riding I used to bring Mick Halford’s young lads - Shane Foley, Conor Hoban, Rory Cleary - down to the apprentice school. I was never afraid of giving them lessons or advising them because I thought I was better than them anyway. Not in a cocky way. A lot of the jockeys give advice. I loved helping the younger generation.”

The experiences with career-ending injury and illness, and in O’Connor’s case, alcohol and drugs, don’t define the pair. They are just an element of the total package that augments their appropriateness for the job.

These are skilled experts, who possess both empathy and knowledge. They know the game. And they want to help.

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At present, O’Connor and Power are private operators. The IJT has recognised the potential for an industry-led initiative along the lines of what the BHA has. In the UK, there are now 31 qualified jockey coaches and they are struggling to meet the demand.

The IJT has written a submission to Horse Racing Ireland proposing a similar formal approach in Ireland. The benefits are twofold. It would provide employment for former jockeys, and essential guidance to young amateurs and apprentices at a time when trainers have less time than ever to do so.

The end result is a strengthening of the Irish industry and its reputation on a worldwide basis.

Ringrose and Greaves will be in Ireland next week to present their Irish graduates with their official certificates. After that, they will participate in a round-table discussion with Keith Rowe (RACE), Andrew Coonan (Irish Injured Jockeys), Carol Nolan (HRI) and the IJT duo of Moran and O’Sullivan in an attempt to tease the matter out.

“What we need is to map it out,” says Moran. “Does it have value? What value does it have? How can it be organised? Whose remit would it be under? We would be quick to say that it should not be controlled by the Injured Jockeys’ Trust but we’ve definitely brought the troops up the mountain a bit.”

It is surely only a matter of time.