HAVING grown up and worked with horses from a young age, I’ve always been a fan of racing but coming from the hills of Tyrone it has never been easy to get involved. With the exception of a couple of trainers, it is almost a non-existent sport in the county and on a personal level it wasn’t helped by the fact hurling and football would always have been my top priority.

Like a lot of things however, that’s all changed since going to college. I decided to go to UCD and study Equine Science. I was immediately flung in with a bunch of lads all involved in every aspect of racing: breeders, owners, work riders and jockeys. Within a few months of starting my course I’d managed to get a few weeks’ experience in Mulvany’s yard up in Kells and giving another lad a hand with a couple of breakers down in Kilkenny last summer got me riding out work in Gowran.