MADHMOON has been dominating the narrative this week in the lead-up to the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby, largely because of the narrative surrounding the considerable possibility of local veteran trainer Kevin Prendergast shedding his maiden status in the classic.

Of course it would be jockey Chris Hayes’s first win too and there would be a delicious symmetry in Jerry Hannon calling him home this evening, on the Kerryman’s debut commentating on Ireland’s most important flat race.

It is 20 years since the first time he picked up a mic to inform punters what was happening, at the pony races in Athea. Among the competitors was a diminutive 12-year-old who had already begun taking his own baby steps towards the top of the tree in his chosen profession.

“My very first day’s commentating, Chris Hayes was riding the same day,” Hannon recalls, smiling at the memory.

“He had a babyish face, green colours with white hoops on the sleeves and he was only up to my waist. But that day, 17th of October 1999, Chris was riding Sparky Boy, I think. I have known Chris since then.

“He was only a cricket of a thing. I can still picture him. It would be full of emotion for Chris if he won after his mom died. He has been with Kevin since he was that high. And Kevin is 87 next month. You would listen to Kevin all day. He is some character. It would be the romantic story.”

Fairytale

There is a touch of the fairytale about it for Hannon too, although he plays it down. But force him to consider it and the 38-year-old admits that it is beginning to dawn on him.

Not so much that he is about to call the Derby, but generally, that he has done very well. Been lucky, yes, to be guided on the right path, had people to help him clear a speed bump or two along the way but he is now the principal commentator at Irish racecourses, calling all the elite races.

You wouldn’t say he dreamed of it because as a youngster growing up in Listowel he had no notion of where life might take him.

What the famed town had, of course, was a racecourse that was bound to the community.

“We always got school off for the week of the races. That time it was Monday to Friday and we would get the half-day from school on the Friday. Bird’s Amusements would be setting up in the market yard. That is where I got my first bite for it, the carnival atmosphere around the town.”

Hannon’s late father Joe was a close friend of Liam Healy, the legendary photographer who is also sadly passed on. Joe was a carpenter who was constantly doing something for Liam. As the only boy in the family, the youngest of three, Jerry was permanently attached to his father, following his hero everywhere.

That never fostered an interest in being a chippy but it prompted Liam to take him on and teach him the business while he was still at school.

“I ran the office for a year when Pat went to Australia. Liam Snr and Jnr covered the race meetings and I ran the office. But prior to that I spent all of my teenage years, if I wasn’t at home, I was with the Healys and vice versa.

“I did my Leaving Certificate in 1998 and as soon as I finished my Leaving Certificate, I went straight into the Healys’ full-time.”

And he snapped away for 18 more years, combining duties with commentary and a miscellany of other jobs including selling chocolate for Cadbury. He is forever thankful to the Healy family and particular Liam Snr.

Pat Keane of Irish Examiner fame is another who always provided sound advice and still does. And of course his employer, the Association of Irish Racecourses, and specifically Paddy Walsh and Sarah Dwan.

Interestingly, commentary came as a result of a yen for performance.

“I was involved as a young fella with a local amateur drama group, Lartigue Theatre Company. My party piece was Michael O’Hehir’s 1967 (Grand National) Foinavon commentary. When Michael passed, fadó fadó, there was a snippet of that famous commentary in the paper and I cut it out and learned it off.

“Would you believe if I was ever asked to the do the party piece it was either under a table or behind a door? I couldn’t face the people. I was that shy. I had to stand with my back to the crowd when I would be asked to do the party piece.”

It is a not-uncommon trait among performers, the alter ego allowing them to play another role. Commentary suits in its solitary nature though.

“I am heard and not seen. I am away. And even any time now that I would be asked to rhyme off the party piece I would have to have a bottle in me, four pints or more. I would have to be half-tipsy. I couldn’t do it otherwise.”

Travelling to the races as a youngster, he always collected the cards. He came across one recently from an Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown around 30 years ago, and it had notes written on it in his eight- or nine-year-old writing, such as “coming around the home turn”.

It was Liz Horgan, daughter of the organiser of Athea pony races, the late James Horgan, who kept after him to translate his party piece into the real thing.

So he agreed and was hooked. Point-to-points followed, then a few meetings under rules. Doing a couple of races at Listowel was sweet.

“I would be very much a traditionalist. Keep it simple and you can’t go wrong. I look at myself as a course commentator. My audience is with me. Whenever it started in the early noughties, you nearly had to be at the course to hear the commentaries. Nowadays the course commentaries are live on Racing TV. Every betting shop in England and Ireland, phone lines, local radio stations at festivals. If you buy a DVD. If there is a big race that RTÉ aren’t covering they might show the closing stages.

“The people at the races only want to know where their horse is throughout the course of the race. Keep it simple and don’t overcomplicate it. You can lose the run of things and it can knock you out of kilter.

“These people have had a bet in the ring and they are going to the stand to watch. They don’t want anything flowery, the old-fashioned way is best. I got more of a buzz out of listening to the course commentaries when I was young and that’s what I know so I am never going to overcomplicate it and though the audience has changed, in my head, the people at the track are the people I want to cater for.”

There are many challenges. Learning all the caps for the Gigginstown colours in the Irish Grand National was certainly one, particularly when attempting to ascertain whether one was pink or just faded in the wash. That is where the homework really kicks in and knowing additional tack is important.

The ability to retain information is very evident throughout our conversation and that is obviously a pivotal ingredient in the composition of a good commentator.

In the last year, Hannon has racked up a lot of landmarks. That first Irish National to complete the set along with all the regional Nationals; the first classic with the Irish St Leger, the first Guineas, looming on the first Derby and when the Oaks is done, the set of classics completed. And something to be just as proud of, a first commentary in Laytown completing the set of tracks.

Happy memories

There are so many happy memories but it hasn’t all been plain sailing. Spending so much time racing, he fancied himself a keen student of form once upon a time. Fact is, he wasn’t.

“My last bet was May 17th, 2002, 17 years ago. It was problematic. I got sucked in. I only ever once bought a new car, a Volkswagen Golf. Silver. 02 KY 2762. I didn’t have it long and I had to put it on the market to pay back gambling debts. I ran up overdrafts. The local bookmaker thought there was money there.

“I was living at home. I had little overheads. I was getting the few bob off Liam and my commentary money (but) I was not in a good place. Luckily enough that happened at a young age.

“One of the saddest things ever was when I sold my car. It was a guy from Wexford and he was coming to see it outside the Galtee Inn in Cahir. My dad followed me in his van. This guy came from Wexford, loved the car, we shook hands there and then and off he went with my car. I came home with my dad and the first thing the next morning I had to go down to the bank and hand it over to pay off the overdraft. I was blowing up, even talking about it now... I had to start again.”

He never considered leaving the environment though. “I had too much of a grá for the game to take up something else.”

Now, he has no problems walking through the betting ring. It speaks volumes for his discipline. He was a 13-year-old apprentice snapper when he attended his first Irish Derby in 1995.

“Winged Love was my first one. I was sent down to the home turn with a camera. I framed the runners coming around the home turn. I thought the Derby would never come.

“I was sent down after the second race to get down there on time. I was there for a couple of hours. I missed a good handful of races. I didn’t even know who had won it because there was no mobile phones. I didn’t know until I came back and handed in the camera.”

Jerry at work in Gowran Park in the winter \ Photo Healy Racing

Normal race

To a large extent, he will treat it like a normal race but the homework gets ratcheted up alright. And that never takes place until the day itself.

You wouldn’t get a wink of sleep if you did it the night before. He likes to chill out until he pulls into the car park. That is when he gets into the zone.

One thing he won’t do is prepare a line for a potential eventuality.

“I cringe at some of them. Clichés, I cringe at them. I try to be natural. You are there to call what you see… If you are preparing something and it doesn’t actually happen, you can knock yourself out of kilter. You could call the wrong winner even.”

He is angry about the clash with the All-Ireland Football qualifier between Kildare and Tyrone in Newbridge, that the GAA would not or could not prevail upon Sky to at least have the game in the 7pm slot rather than 5pm.

“A new-look Derby, the first year in the new Curragh, and it should be all about the Curragh in Kildare this Saturday.

“There is no racing on Sunday. What was to stop the GAA having the game then? But we are seen as a minority sport. I am disheartened for the Curragh. But hopefully people will support it. It is a world class facility. I wish them well on the weekend.

“I am angry. I am less of a fan of the GAA after it. There are only a few furlongs between the two places. It could have been avoided.”

That will all be forgotten about when the field of eight break from the stalls at 5.20pm this evening. And the excitement will build as the turn around the home corner, just as he imagined as a child.

Jerry Hannon has done well indeed.