Tell us about your background in racing, sales, and breeding.

I started riding out in Ballydoyle from around the age of 12 and I took out my jockey’s licence as soon as I was old enough. I was very fortunate to ride some great horses and plenty of winners. I was also very lucky to have had the opportunity to ride at some of the biggest stages in the world including the Epsom Derby, the Irish Derby, the Irish Guineas and Oaks, and at Royal Ascot. Unfortunately, I had a bad fall in 2017 and had to retire from race riding. After this, I started getting involved in the breeding side of the industry on our stud farm. I am now full time on the stud farm for the last few years and involved with all aspects of running the farm, from organising mating plans and foaling to preparing the yearlings that are going to the sales and working with the lads on the farm breaking some of the ones that go into training.

Who helped you along the way or gave them advice?

My mum and dad have always been a massive part of everything and are the ones I go to for advice in any situation. Before I started working on our stud farm, I didn’t know a whole lot about the day-to-day running of a stud. We are very lucky to have a great team of people on the stud and have learned everything from our team at home. I am also in a pretty unique position in that Dad, Joseph, and Donnacha have all trained a lot of members of our mares’ families, so we can get a lot of feedback and information around what stallions work with which pedigrees and vice versa, so we are constantly making tweaks and changes to try and give us the best possible chance of breeding good racehorses.

What challenges/problems have you faced so far?

I have brought a few yearlings to the sales in the past few years and have found the sales environment to be quite tough. Everyone at the sales with horses is so professional in what they do and I hope to be able to improve and get the hang of the sales.

What advice would you give to somebody else who wanted to get involved in bloodstock professionally?

It can be a tough industry to get involved in but you have to start somewhere and don’t be discouraged if things don’t go exactly to plan at the start. Keeping your head down and working hard will get you a long way.

What are your hopes for this year?

We are currently in the middle of the foaling season, so hoping for a good foaling season with safe and healthy foals. I am looking forward to consigning and preparing yearlings for this year’s sales and watching our homebreds racing and hopefully winning some good races during the year.