SUNDAY morning and I draw the curtains. Jesus, what a horrible sight! It’s grey, dark and the sky looks to be on the ground. The scene mirrors the way I feel after the previous evening’s result in the football, with the Dubs beating us in our own backyard by a point.

I have to face them at Punchestown today, putting on a smiley face and let their banter roll off me. Oh the thoughts of it! Problem is, I’m used to it now; sure they have us where they want us for the past decade and a half.

Pick up the phone, check what’s happening in the world - is Trump giving us a laugh today?

Wallop! Noooo! Aw, Holy God! Like a heavyweight boxer’s punch into the stomach, the IHRB let us know that Mikey has left us. Punchestown and the point-to-points called off. Be no trace of any Dubs today! Oh how I’m wishing now that there was, that way, wouldn’t Mikey still be with us?

Tramore, New Year’s Day, 47 nights earlier. Mikey steers Embassy Gardens home to win the feature event on the card for trainer Willie Mullins. I photograph him and his mount in a happy kinda celebration shot on the track, before they head for the winner’s enclosure.

“Well done Mikey boy, good on you kid.” “Thanks Pat, I needed that.” The relief washing over him. “Mikey, this game is about the long road, stay on the road,” I tell him. “Don’t worry, Pat, when I get my chance, I will turn it into a motorway,” he says and a big hearty laugh out of him.

Community feeling

I know Mikey, not well, but I know him. Sure we are both part of the same community. The racing community. We move from town to town like a circus. Same clowns, different towns. As I get older, I appreciate the younger generations. They make me smile and I learn from them. Little life lessons, like new slang words, phone and computer shortcuts, that type of stuff. Sure they know it all!

Mikey is a step above the youngest generation I interact with. There is a group of 16-17-year-olds riding. Mikey is 24. I love capturing their first success on the track and then watching them achieve their goals and dreams. Cheltenham is every jump jockey’s dream and, in March 2023, we saw Mikey grab his dream twice in the one day.

Glorious, great and gracious, Mikey stole the show in the biggest circus. If you hadn’t seen the results, you wouldn’t have known it. His cap still fitted his head, his walk didn’t alter and his tongue didn’t let him down. Pure humble, hi.

The last few days, everything I have read and heard spoken about him is true. It makes me wish I knew him better. Makes me wish I spent time in his company socially. Makes me wish...

Mikey, you are a credit to your family and friends.

May God speed you on that motorway and wrap his loving arms around you X