‘I don’t know who made the call, but whoever decided to leave Sam Ewing on Croke Park [instead of switching to Firefox] - it was a big call and the right call. This was the winning of the race: coming down the straight, Keith Donoghue is looking for a bit of room on Firefox and can’t get out, Sam isn’t letting him down the inner. Sam has controlled and dictated the pace from the front. It was a beautiful ride” – Barry Geraghty

“Every step of the way, Sam has been in the right position. He’s given him a brilliant ride, even technically so with how he has switched his whip into his left hand as the race gets competitive. He leaves the bare horse width inside of him in the straight but you need the bravest of brave novices to go into that gap… A brilliant ride. He has a huge opportunity now with Jack Kennedy out. Gordon Elliott is lucky to have him at a heartbreaking time for Jack” – Ruby Walsh

RTÉ Racing panel’s reaction following Croke Park’s victory in the Bar One Racing Drinmore Novice Chase

WATCHING last weekend’s Grade 1 Drinmore Novice Chase, and listening to the glowing praise from truly legendary jockeys in the aftermath, it’s hard to wrap your head around the fact that this time three years ago, Sam Ewing hadn’t ever ridden in a race over jumps.

The rising star from Templepatrick, Co Antrim was only preparing to make the transition from flat to National Hunt racing, with just two winners left over jumps before his claim expired. At 18, he was effectively starting from scratch in the jumps game, soon to be riding without an allowance against professionals. Tough sledding - no matter who you are.

Fast forward to the winter of 2024, however, and Ewing’s stock has never been higher. Through the refining of already considerable natural talents and a momentous 2024, he can now call himself a dual Grade 1-winning rider, and a Cheltenham Festival-winning rider.

Even more significant than that, he may also be poised to challenge for a crack at being crowned champion jockey this season. A tally of 41 winners for the campaign so far puts him in a share of second with Paul Townend and just five winners off the pace-setting Darragh O’Keeffe.

Of course, the season also looks set to get all the more intense for the former pony racing star. After the cruellest of blows for his best friend Jack Kennedy, breaking his leg for a sixth time at Fairyhouse last weekend, Ewing is placed to pick up several of the Gordon Elliott stable’s prized mounts over the coming months.

Though out of luck in both instances, he was the one who received the sought-after call up to partner Teahupoo and Romeo Coolio for the yard in feature races at the Fairyhouse Winter Festival last weekend.

The latest chapter in what has already been a rapid rise through the National Hunt ranks comes with major potential, albeit the desperately unfortunate conditions in which it has happened is certainly not lost on the rider.

“It wasn’t in the circumstances that I wanted to be riding those horses, but it was nice to be able to get the rides on Sunday,” says Ewing, who rides with the sort of flair and assuredness you do not necessarily expect from someone who is set to turn 21 later this month.

Gutted for him

“I’m nearly with Jack every day of the week. Between going to work together, riding out together, going racing together, travelling together and living closeby, we end up spending a lot of time in each other’s company. I’m just gutted for him. It’s very hard for him to take, but I’m sure he’ll be back as strong as ever. He’s been so mentally strong - I suppose that’s why he’s champion jockey.”

It turns out racing isn’t the pair’s only shared, adrenaline-filled interest. During a previous spell when they were both on the sidelines, the young riders took in a Stateside trip to watch America’s top professional bull riders in action.

“We were both injured and ended up watching a series on Netflix about bull riding in America,” says Ewing.

“When we were sitting and watching it, we decided to look it up, saw there was an event on the following week and just said we’d go to it. It was a great experience.

“It doesn’t look easy to say the least, but I think it’d be very cool to give it a try at some stage later down the line.”

Attempting to fill the boots of a generational talent like Kennedy, even temporarily, is a challenge that cannot be underestimated. Case in point, the out-of-retirement Davy Russell and Jordan Gainford both drew a blank for Cullentra at the 2023 Cheltenham Festival when the stable jockey was sidelined through injury.

One thing that has consistently been pointed to throughout Ewing’s early years in the sport, however, is his level of maturity. A prolific flapping talent who won the 2017 Dingle Derby, and then a listed-winning rider on the flat while still having his 5lb claim, his former boss Ger Lyons is said to have described him as the most mature 16-year-old he had ever come across.

Ewing’s sterling effort on Croke Park in the Drinmore demonstrated why he has broken into the top batch of riders over jumps this season, and there is an instinctual nature to his riding, particularly over an obstacle. Outwardly at least, very little appears to get him off the bridle as an individual.

“I’d like to think I’m laid-back enough in general, in and out of racing,” he says.

“It’s just a case of dealing with whatever happens. The flat was never going to be a long-term thing. My weight was against me and I probably stayed at it longer than I expected because I enjoyed it. I wouldn’t have even really been into flat racing when growing up.

“I try to treat [my preparation for a big meeting] the same as any day; ride out and then go racing. I do have a bit of a look at the form of the runners, the pace that might be in the race and things like that but, to be honest, I’m not really a big form man. I prefer to ride off instinct.

“I don’t really want to complicate it. I’m lucky to ride for great people, like Gordon and Noel [Meade], who don’t really tend to tie you down to instructions when you’re going out. That’s what I’d rather do. I don’t know if I’m any good at it, but I’d rather approach it that way.”

The experience of over 100 pony racing winners has clearly stood to the ‘Ride of the Year’ nominee at this week’s Horse Racing Ireland Awards (put forward by Davy Russell for his all-guns-blazing effort on Pinkerton at the Punchestown Festival). A brief experience of working in his family’s fishmonger business during the Coronavirus outbreak brought a different but worthwhile perspective to him too.

“This is all I ever thought I’d do for as long as I can remember. I worked in the fish shop at home over Covid and, after that, I knew for definite I wanted to be a jockey,” Ewing quips.

“I would have been in there battering fish and stuff like that. I was never going to do it in the long-term, but I knew what I wanted after coming out of there.”

In good company

The rider, who cites Barry Geraghty, Paul Carberry and Ruby Walsh as three of his biggest riding inspirations while growing up, adds: “With the pony racing, we were all having the time of our lives, really. Running around the country every weekend was what the summer was all about. It was always very competitive at the same time. Jack was kind of finishing up and Rossa Ryan probably would have been the best around at the time that I was starting out.

“Myself, Dylan Browne McMonagle, Mikey Sheehy and Danny Gilligan, to mention just a few names, were a few years after those lads. There were a lot of very good riders when I was doing it and I really enjoyed it.”

Ewing was a regular fixture in the winner’s enclosure at flapping meetings while wearing the maroon and white silks of Gigginstown House Stud throughout his childhood, so there is certainly an element of synchronicity to now see him riding top-level winners in the same colours under rules.

His two biggest successes have come for the O’Leary operation: Stellar Story’s 33/1 Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle upset at the Cheltenham Festival last season and a 22/1 surprise on Croke Park at Fairyhouse last Sunday.

“I obviously liked those colours then and always wanted to ride for them, so it’s cool to be able to wear them now on days like last weekend,” says Ewing, who outside of racing enjoys playing golf (“very badly”, he insists) and, when time allows, hunting with the Ward Union.

“When I was very young, I asked Gordon if it’d be okay if I wore those colours while pony racing and it just came about from there.

“It was great to get the winner on Croke Park at Fairyhouse, especially for Michael and Eddie [O’Leary], who have been very good to me.”

As well as the obvious trainer-owner link between Ewing’s two Grade 1 winners, the pair of smart stayers also had knock-on implications for each other at Cheltenham last spring. Stellar Story only ended up being declared 10 minutes before the final fields closed for the Albert Bartlett, after intended runner Croke Park was found to be lame on the same morning.

While the strength of the Cheltenham form might have initially looked a touch questionable on the basis of the first five home being priced at 33/1, 18/1, 8/1, 40/1 and 16/1, the race has been working out a treat.

Cheltenham breakthrough

Stellar Story got off the mark at the first attempt over fences in the Grade 2 Florida Pearl Novice Chase at Punchestown (narrowly beating Ewing on Search For Glory), runner-up, The Jukebox Man, posted a smashing first attempt over fences when claiming the Grade 2 John Francome Novices’ Chase last week, while the third, Dancing City, won Grade 1s on each of his next two starts at Aintree and Punchestown.

“It was the stuff of dreams, really,” Ewing says of his Cheltenham breakthrough.

“Everything went very smoothly from when we jumped off; it nearly went exactly to plan and luckily we got there in time. It was probably a fair performance from him on the day when you look at the form of the race.

“Even his form heading into the race had been strong when you look back to his third in a Grade 2 at Navan in December, finishing behind the Supreme winner Slade Steel, with the Martin Pipe winner Better Days Ahead in fourth. That turned out to be a very good race and the form franked itself at Cheltenham.”

On his narrow Punchestown defeat aboard Search For Glory behind Stellar Story, he adds: “I was trying not to get into a battle with Stellar Story, because I know how tough he is when he gets into one. We missed the last, unfortunately, and that’s how it unfolded.”

Ewing has already got a taste of riding one of Gigginstown’s brightest stars this season, the ultra-talented Brighterdaysahead. Kennedy, who was seen at his very best when helping to turn over State Man in the Morgiana, was unavailable due to suspension when the immaculately-bred mare made a winning reappearance at Down Royal in Grade 3 company.

Ewing doesn’t tend to use two words when one will do, but his fondness for the current Mares’ Hurdle favourite is evident.

“She’s never gone and won by half the track or anything, but she has a massive engine,” he beams. “She’s a proper, proper racehorse, very exciting. I know she jumped a bit left at Punchestown, but she wasn’t bad the whole way around. I find her to be a very tough mare.

“The feel you get off her is hard to describe, I think you have to ride her to really understand how good she is. It’s like there’s always something there with her when you need her. She’s doing everything easily.”

Stable competition

The young rider, who shares a house with fellow jockeys, Danny Gilligan and Jordan Gainford, adds: “I just spotted a couple of the big-race entries coming out for Christmas and it’s nice to see the likes of Gerri Colombe and Brighterdaysahead entered up, all the nice novices too. There are a lot of big names entered, but I can’t really be expecting too much; there’s the likes of Danny, Jordan and plenty of other jockeys coming into Gordon’s. It’s very competitive and you have to take it day by day.”

On the back of her defeat of the reigning champion hurdler, Brighterdaysahead emerged as a possible candidate for two-mile hurdling’s premier prize, and Ewing already has experience of what a top operator in that division feels like.

His father Warren will forever have a close link with Champion Hurdle star Constitution Hill, having handled the sublime talent in his point-to-point days.

“He worked like a very good horse at home, we knew he had an engine,” says Sam.

“He probably wasn’t very fit when we sent him to his point-to-point [finishing second], he was maybe doing everything too easy and wasn’t as tuned up as others might be. I rode him in some of his work at places like Dreaper’s and Moira. He wouldn’t give you much of a feel going around until you asked him a question - then he’d show his engine. He’s a really fast horse. It’s been great to watch him go on to do what he’s done and, hopefully, he’ll be back out again soon.”

Ewing’s parents, Warren and Debbie, have been taking immense joy from watching the young rider’s rising success.

“They were both at Down Royal last month when we had a good couple of days [partnering a weekend five-timer] and dad even drove down to Fairyhouse after coming back from Newbury over the weekend,” says Ewing.

“He follows it closely and I’d say he was glad he came to Fairyhouse with how it worked out. They drove me all over the country growing up and it’s nice to have them come when they can. I try to help out at home when I’m able to as well.”

Ewing has come a long way in a short space of time since his first winner over jumps, the Liam Lennon-trained School Lane, at Down Royal on St Stephen’s Day in 2021. When asked about what his ultimate aim is in the sport, he doesn’t take long to come with a response.

“I’m no different to anyone else in the weighing room. Any of us would love to be champion jockey and I’m the same,” he says. “ It’s something I’d love to do some day. The kick you get out of winning big races is obviously hard to beat too.”

He adds: “I didn’t really have any claim when I went jumping, but Gordon has been very good to me from the start. I’m blessed to be in the position I’m in and having the season I’m having.”

With the backing of the same team that helped propel Jack Kennedy to championship honours last term, opportunity might well be knocking for Ewing to achieve that ultimate dream sooner than he ever could have expected.

Now that would be a stellar story.