HAVING ridden over 200 winners in a career that spans two decades, I have no intention of hanging up my boots just yet.

However, I am fully aware that there is life after racing, so with that in mind, I have branched out in a few different directions over the last few years. When the time does eventually come to retire from the saddle, I hope the groundwork I am now doing will pay dividends.

Believe it or not, as a young child I thought that riding horses was only for girls! After an equestrian school opened up near our home in Tipperary, my sister was one of the first to sign up for lessons. She dared me to tag along one Saturday morning, before suggesting I should get up on a pony – of course being the big brother I had to save face!

What followed was one of the best experiences of my young life to date, so much so, that I was immediately hooked. We later sold a pony to a man who worked for trainer Edward O’Grady and it was through that connection that I ended up riding out in the yard. I went in before school every morning as well as weekends and holidays. Gavin Wragg, who went on to ride horses such as Satchmo and Young Nimrod here in Britain, rode out in O’Grady’s at the time so he often brought me into work.

Professional

After completing my Junior Certificate, I went to work for Willie Mullins for a year. I was just 15 at the time but Ruby Walsh had just turned professional after winning the previous season’s amateur title so a whole host of us felt we could take that spot. I think there were 16 licensed jockeys in the yard that season I was with Willie!

In the meantime, my dad had bought a racehorse (Shrug) whom he sent to Edward O’Grady. I only had a handful of rides under rules before gaining my first win aboard that horse at Wexford in June 2000.

As a young lad I was frustrated as things weren’t happening quick enough at Closutton so when Gavin Wragg approached me about the possibility of a move to Britain I was very keen. I went over to Charlie Mann for a week’s trial and although I missed home I knew it was the right move for me.

Noel Fehily was stable jockey at the time so it was great to have that link to Ireland. We hit it off straight away and have remained close friends throughout the years. I only had five or six rides that first season, so much so that I considered leaving at the end of the campaign.

However, Charlie convinced me to stay and give it more time, a decision I never regretted. Within three years of moving to Britain, I had been crowned champion amateur and rode a winner at the Cheltenham Festival. In total I rode 21 winners that season (2002) with the highlight being the win of The Bushkeeper for Nicky Henderson in the Kim Muir Chase.

Looking back, I probably didn’t fully appreciate it all at the time, but that 2002 season was the pinnacle of my career. In the intervening years I have ridden an average of 10 winners a season but things just never really took off after that ground-breaking campaign.

However, at the same time, I have had a good career as a jockey, one which has undoubtedly opened doors for me into areas which I hope to pursue further when retirement comes.

I have already built up something of a reputation as a jockey coach with the likes of Page Fuller and David Maxwell advertising my abilities on that front. It gives me tremendous satisfaction to watch their progress, knowing that I have played my part in bringing them forward.

Hospitality

Corporate hospitality is something that I particularly enjoy and I have become more involved in that side of the business in recent times. I work closely with 16 different racecourses, chatting to corporate clients, taking them through the cards and hopefully pointing them in the right direction.

In some cases, I may even take them to watch the horses jump the final fence, or a pre-race visit to the weigh room or commentator’s box. As I am obviously still very much a professional jockey, I have a team of five or six working with me, as it may not always be feasible for me to be in attendance on race days.

To their credit, the racecourses acknowledge this and are very accommodating in that respect. I also want to thank my sponsors First Class Events who have been so supportive of me since I signed up with them this year.

Diabetic

For much of my career I had carried the secret of being a diabetic. The condition was something that licensed jockeys did their best to keep to themselves as the authorities were quite naturally worried about its effects.

One rider, Jonathan Lower, reported his diabetes to the Jockey Club and was forced to confine his workload to just a single ride a day (after fighting it for two years). I first became aware of my condition when I was just 23, so spent the best part of 13 years hiding it from the world. Eventually I was forced to come clean after an anonymous tip-off to the Jockey Club informing them that I had diabetes.

Fortunately, I had the backing of Dr Gerry Hill of the BHA who turned out to be an absolute legend. I had also been attending Dr Ian Gallon regularly and had the medical records to support my insistence that I had my diabetes under control. Thankfully the rules concerning jockeys with the condition have since been changed, thus allowing young riders with the condition to pursue their dreams once managed properly. I receive correspondence from the parents of many such riders and am only too happy to offer any advice that I can. I recently joined up with my close friend Noel Fehily to become an ambassador of his newly established Noel Fehily Racing Syndicate. Our very first runner, Pride Of Lecale, clearly read the script as he won at Market Rasen last November. We now have seven syndicates up and running in what I regard as a very exciting project.

I get great satisfaction from working behind the scenes, filling the syndicates and buying the right horses alongside Noel (Fehily). The satisfaction from seeing all the hard work brought to fruition with a horse winning is hard to beat, possibly even more than riding a winner yourself.

In the longer term, I hope to work with Noel to grow the business to the point where in five years’ time we could have upwards of 100 horses. However, I have no plans to retire from race-riding just yet; I see myself continuing for another 10 years at least, something I’ve been saying for the last 10 years! If I am to develop a profile in the sport after retiring, then I need to keep my name and face in the public domain over the next few years.

David Crosse was in conversation with

John O’Riordan