Thomas Lyster (TL): How did you get involved in horse racing in the first place?

Kevin O’Ryan (KO’R): I am from a racing family. My dad was headman to Adrian Maxwell, then Jim Bolger for a year and then the late Mick O’Toole for 10 or 12 years. We moved to the Curragh when I was six years of age and I always wanted to be in racing. I have been going racing for as long as I can remember and it something I always wanted to do, mam and dad were very supportive, all they wanted was for myself and my brother “Mouse” [Aidan] O’Ryan who is now a bloodstock agent, to finish school and get the Leaving Certificate and as they always say, as long as you finish school, you can do whatever you want to do after that.

I have been going racing since I was a kid when dad was going racing for Mick O’Toole and I would lead up horses at the weekends. Mick O’Toole used to give the lads a week off who didn’t live around so he had a lot of lads from all over the country working for him, so it was only the local lads who would work over Christmas and I would be drafted in to lead up on St. Stephen’s Day. I always wanted to be in racing and could never see myself doing anything else from a young age.

TL: You had over 70 winners as an amateur jockey, what was it like being a jockey and how tough was it?

KO’R: I rode as an amateur, I was Dermot Weld’s stable amateur for seven and a half years, Francis Crowley’s stable amateur as well and I enjoyed every minute of it. I rode out my claim and had a couple of big winners. The Goffs Land Rover Bumper on Hardy Eustace was the biggest and I rode some good horses like Ansar for Dermot Weld in the Denny’s Haversnack which was a good amateur race at the time in Tralee. I wanted to be a flat jockey because I grew up in the Curragh. I wanted to be like the Steve Cauthens and Lester Piggotts of this world.

I knew when I came around to 14 or 15, that obviously weight was not going to allow me become a flat jockey but I enjoyed every minute of it. I rode 70 winners and rode some of the winners for the biggest trainers around at the time and made some great friends as well as contacts out of it.

I spent a year in England riding for Charlie Mann and started off with Martin Brassil. That was my first job after doing the Leaving Certificate and I spent a year in Kildalton Agricultural College as well. I finished the course on the Friday and started in Martin Brassil’s on the Saturday morning. I knew Martin Brassil since I was a kid and that’s where it started.

I rode a first winner for him, then I went to England and that was a great experience, it was my first time away from home. I rode around 15 or 16 winners. I was always going to be too heavy and not good enough to turn professional so I came home to Ireland. I spent a season with Willie Mullins and then I got the job in Dermot Weld’s and everything took off from there.

Ian Almond, Gordon Elliott, Kevin O'Ryan and Joseph O'Brien having a laugh

TL: What was the most memorable winner you had as a jockey?

KO’R: It was as it turned out Hardy Eustace. A very good horse, I didn’t think the day I won on him mind you, that he would go and win two Champion Hurdles but he was very laid-back that day, he never really travelled, he was one of the first off the bridle but he won really well. It was a very good renewal of the Goffs Land Rover bumper, he beat Central House.

Dessie Hughes had three runners in it and the late Kieran Kelly met me a couple of days beforehand. He was the stable jockey and he said: “You are riding in the Goffs Land Rover bumper, give Dessie Hughes a ring in the morning and you will ride one of ours”. So, I rang Dessie and he said: “Yep, you will ride one of mine”. Roger Loughran said: “Wherever I finish you will be right alongside me”. Kieran Kelly, God be good to him, also said to me: “I think you are riding the best of ours.”

Hardy Eustace was the biggest winner I rode, and he also turned out to be the best horse I had ridden.

I was also very lucky to win on Ansar for Dermot Weld won a couple of Galway Plates and a Hurdle and was placed quite a few times, I think it was second and fourth in a few bumpers on Numbersixvalverde who went on to a Grand National for Martin Brassil.

TL: Who is the most influential person in your racing career so far?

KO’R: My parents Bobby and Shelia they would have to be. My dad has bought numerous Grade and Group 1 winners from around the world and built up his business from nothing. My brother is a leading bloodstock agent who has bought numerous group and Grade 1 winners down through the years. He buys for all over the world and we were always encouraged and given loads of confidence and supported, no matter what myself and my brother Mouse decided to do.

TL: You were a former jockey’s agent to Pat Smullen and currently Davy Russell and Jack Kennedy, what does your role involve?

KO’R: I was coming to the end of my riding career, myself and Pat met in Dermot Weld’s and we just clicked straight away I suppose. Pat got me the job with Francis Crowley who was then one of the leading dual-purpose trainers.

It was one of the best jobs for an amateur jockey in Ireland back then. She would have had 30 or 40 bumper horses. Pat had been onto me a year before I stopped riding, we just became great friends and he asked me, “would I be interested in becoming his agent?” I decided, yeah, let’s give it a go and both himself and Michael Hussey who is still with me. They were the first two jockeys I started off with and it just grew from there.

My current role as a jockey’s agent, I have Declan McDonogh who is a former champion jockey, I have Billy Lee who is one of the top-class jockeys now, Chris Hayes, Gary Carroll, Leigh Roche, Oisin Orr, Conor Hoban and Gary Halpin. I have also got some of the top apprentices in the country.

I have Davy Russell and Jack Kennedy over the jumps. Davy Russell rang me out of the blue, four or five years ago, to see if I would be interested in taking him on. His former agent was retiring and I have enjoyed every moment working with Davy.

I am friends with them all and I will only take on jockeys that I can stand over, that are good workers, most importantly they can ride, they can conduct themselves well and that they have the same ambitions as me which is to ride loads of winners.

I am very fair and nobody gets preference and it is basically trying to get them on the best horses as I can do every day. I have had 14 champion jockeys, seven or eight champion apprentices, so I have been very lucky and hopefully it will continue. You have to try and get them on the best horses obviously, I work very closely with their own trainers. I try to make a plan what they are going to ride, what they will run and go from there.

I deal with a lot of the trainers in England, most of the English-trained horses that run on the flat in Ireland that are ridden by Irish jockeys, would be ridden by my jockeys and I have made a lot of contacts with the English trainers, one from riding, two from going to the sales with Dad and my cousin Robin O’Ryan who is Richard Fahey’s assistant. Working with Racing TV is another contact as well.

I think that trainers can trust me that when I book a jockey, I am not going to take them off, I am very straight and loyal.

TL: Do you enjoy the TV work?

KO’R: Absolutely love it. I don’t find it work, I enjoy going racing and make a living out of my hobby and there are very few people who are working in jobs who can actually say, they make a living out of their hobby and they enjoy doing what they do.

I am very lucky that I have a lot of variety, I love going racing and meeting people and showcasing the characters in Irish racing such as jockeys, trainers and owners, stable staff as well, I love mentioning them.

I find it very easy and I am just very lucky to do what I do. It came about totally by accident, Dave Keena who was a fellow agent and journalist, he rang me two or three weeks before the Punchestown Festival, it must have been about 2003 or 2004 to see if I would have any interest in working for KFM, the local radio station, covering the racing at Punchestown. I said I’d love to do it, heard no more they rang me two or three hours before the first race at the Punchestown Festival.

The next thing Gary O’Brien started with At The Races and they started covering Irish racing around that time. I walked up to Gary and introduced myself and if you ever want a jockeys’ agent to come on give me a shout! Fair play to Gary took my number two days later he rang me and asked if I would do Listowel.

Matt Chapman was great to work with and all the lads were. Luke Harvey, Jason Weaver were very professional guys and very passionate about the game and obviously Jason Weaver and Luke Harvey were very successful jockeys, especially Jason Weaver who was nearly champion jockey one year.

One thing that stands out about Jason Weaver, I was riding for Mary Reveley in an amateur race at Redcar one day and I was always heavy so I was inside in the sauna and Jason Weaver was at the height of his powers at the time and he was in the sauna as well. Weaver just treated me like I was Frankie Dettori and I was only a 7lb claiming amateur at the time. I went away that day and said what a nice guy Jason Weaver was.

To this day we remain very good friends. I think it is very important with kids and young people that we are in a very privileged position and we should give everyone the time of day to help as many people as we can.

Kevin interviews President Michael D Higgins at the races \Healy Racing

TL: If there was something you could change or improve in racing what would it be?

KO’R: One of the issues for me is owners, I think any registered owner in Ireland should get into any race meeting for free. If there is a syndicate going racing with 20 individuals in it and those 20 individuals should get free access in.

At the end of the day, the owners are the backbone of the industry. If we did not have owners in the game none of us would have jobs. I think it is something that needs to change going forward.

TL: Do you think trainers/owners should be restricted to having a certain number of their own horses in races?

KO’R: I think they should be entitled to enter as many as they can. I think all the big owners should be commended not criticised for the simple reason is that we are very lucky and privileged that they have decided to use their hobby as our industry. They spend a lot of money every year, they are entitled to run as many horses as they can in any race that they can.

It is there for everyone, a lot of the big trainers and owners started off with nothing. At the end of the day, it is not easy it takes a lot work and talent. The big owners are attracted to these trainers who have proven the goods and that is why they have come to them.

I think it is very important that we have the big owners, small owners and syndicates but it is massively important that we have big owners. It is a cycle but they should be allowed run as many horses as possible and they are spending a lot of money that feeds all the way down the food chain.

They go to the sales and they give the vendors plenty of money. It also benefits the breeders, stallions, feed companies and it enables you to employ more staff and also give them more money.

Ireland is the most competitive racing jurisdiction in the world and it is testimony to Irish racing that we have all these big owners who want to invest in our racing and industry.

TL: Where do you see racing in five to 10 years’ time?

KO’R: I think racing is generally in a very good place with always room to improve. I am not big into betting but there is a worry that on-course bookmakers is obviously suffering due to more people betting online, so I would like to see that getting better. I would also like to see the Tote getting better as well.

I am a very positive person and I just hope that will benefit us all if the on-course bookmakers increase revenue on the track.

I can see the weights on the flat having to rise in 10 years’ time. They will definitely have to rise, it is something I feel very strongly about that a lot of these jockeys have serious weight problems because they are getting a lot taller.

It needs to be rectified because it something I see first-hand the damage it can do to health, mental health of jockeys by doing wasting, dehydration and the discipline you need is absolutely unbelievable.

Kevin O'Ryan (right|) with Joseph O’Brien Pat Smullen after Latrobe won the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby \ Carolinenorris.ie

TL: What was the funniest story during your racing career?

KO’R: A great friend of mine, Ian “Busty” Armond, he is now one of Gordon Elliott’s assistants. He was riding at the same time as us, that is how we all became friends.

We were riding in a bumper in Leopardstown one day and Busty was riding a horse called Whitworth Ben for Pat Morris. He was a good horse but could be very quirky. The next thing, it was the first time I first saw a horse run off the bend or run out at Leopardstown. He ran in just before where the second last fence would be and he went straight on and ran into the bushes.

We actually couldn’t stop laughing going past Busty and then the next thing, we were halfway up the straight and this horse doing a million.

Busty remarkably recovered and flew home to finish second. Busty got booed coming in from a section of racegoers. The horse was very good but it was so funny. We all had some laugh that day.