FROM Dunmanway in Co Cork, Gavin made his Cheltenham Festival breakthrough in 2015, winning the Stayers’ Hurdle on Cole Harden, and recently added to the tally as You Wear It Well went on to win the Mares’ Novice Hurdle at the 2023 renewal of the fabled meeting.

That mare’s trainer Jamie Snowden has played a big part in keeping Gavin in the headlines in recent times. In December 2023, Gavin completed an incredible big-race treble; he won the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury on the Snowden-trained Datsalrightgino, the December Gold Cup at Cheltenham on Fugitif for Richard Hobson, and then the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Hewick for Shark Hanlon.

Now firmly established as a man for the big occasion, Gavin spoke to me in mid-January about his career to date and his hopes for the future.

The big winners have been flowing for the man nicknamed ‘Gorgeous Gavin’ in the weighing room.

The Corkonian may well have been tagged with that moniker by some friends on a golfing holiday and, with a nickname like that, you could be forgiven for thinking that a narcissistic ego would be brimming to the fore when you meet him - but you couldn’t be more wrong.

The 31-year-old exudes a quiet confidence, underpinned by burning ambition and a fierce desire to succeed, but at the same time emanates a sense of calm and perspective.

“Things are going great, I can’t lie,” he admits but with a sense of humility. “However, I try not to get too high when I ride a big winner, or beat myself up when it all goes wrong. In my early days, I used to bring my emotions home from the racetrack. After a bad day especially, it would play on my mind. I’d sit alone and reflect, probably too much.

“You can learn from your mistakes, but you mustn’t dwell on them. Racing is my job, and that’s why - now I’m a bit older - I try and park any talk about my job at the front door. Who wants to come home and talk about work?”

First winner

Going back to 2011, Sheehan had to leave home to get more work. He managed to ride his first winner under rules on board Whatsabillion at Thurles in February of that year, but things failed to catch fire in Ireland and, by the end of the summer, he made the big jump at the age of just 19 to come to England, and take up a post at veteran trainer Charlie Mann’s stable in Lambourn. When asked if he considered the magnitude of the move he is somewhat philosophical. “I’ve never been afraid of change and, to be blunt, it got to the point where I had to either move or give up trying to be a jockey. So I suppose I didn’t really see it as a big deal back then, as I asked myself, what was the alternative?”

Mann was winding down in the latter part of his career, but he was a springboard for Sheehan to get the embryonic shoots of success he required, riding seven winners in his first season.

Things then snowballed from there, and then he teamed up with fellow Lambourn handler Warren Greatrex and together they blossomed, with Sheehan landing the conditional jockeys’ title for the 2013-’14 season, amassing 50 winners.

It was the following campaign in which Sheehan was really propelled into the big time, as he rode 73 winners, but undoubtedly the highlight was when he was on board Cole Harden in the 2015 Stayers’ Hurdle, giving both himself and Greatrex a first taste of Cheltenham Festival success.

“That was an amazing feeling and, to be honest, a bit of a blur. Everything came right for Cole Harden on that day - the stars aligned to a nicety. The wind operation had clearly worked wonders, and he got some proper spring ground. I went out there with the idea of being positive and getting in the lead, but how the race unfolded couldn’t have gone any better. Warren had him spot on for the big day and it all came together perfectly.”

Punchestown success

More giddy days followed in 2016, as Sheehan partnered Arzal for Harry Whittington to land Grade 1 honours at Aintree, and then won the Punchestown Stayers’ Hurdle on board one of his favourite horses, in the shape of the Warren Greatrex-trained One Track Mind.

The latter success was a big milestone, in what was at that stage, still relatively early days in his professional career.

“That was huge. I loved the horse, but I was winning a big race back on home soil. I left Ireland five years earlier as I couldn’t buy a winner, and there I was winning a Grade 1 at Punchestown, coming back into a packed winner’s enclosure. It was a magical feeling, and in a way it kind of validated to me that the move was the right thing to do, if you get me?” 

Seldom does an individual in life, not just in sport, stay on top of the peaks when there are lots of troughs hurtling towards you. So it was no surprise that things took a bit of a turn for the worse for Sheehan over the next couple of years.

“Things just started to unravel a bit. I started picking up a few injuries. I broke my wrist and perhaps lost a little bit of confidence and then Warren (Greatrex) called me in one day and told me that Richard Johnson was going to be his number one jockey. I rode as number two for a while, but eventually he stopped using me. I can’t deny it was a big blow, but what can you do? You can sit and sulk, but where would that get you?”

However, Sheehan managed to bounce back to scale the summit once again, as 2020 proved a pivotal moment in him climbing back up the ladder.

Simply The Betts provided him with his second Cheltenham Festival winner, which was a big box ticked, but it was a month earlier where the winning performance of Itchy Feet at Sandown saw Sheehan back in the big time, but simultaneously gave trainer Olly Murphy, as well as owners Kate and Andrew Brooks, their first Grade 1 win. The impact of that day is something that has had a lasting effect on Sheehan.

Special moments

“It was a mad few weeks, and it was hard to take the smile off my face that day at Sandown. You wouldn’t have been able to wipe the smile off the faces of Olly and the Brooks’, no matter what.

“It sounds a bit corny, but those moments mean a lot to me; seeing the joy it brings to connections.

“The joy after Simply The Betts won at Cheltenham was priceless, and it was exactly the same with Hewick winning the King George. Shark (Hanlon) and the team basically cancelled their Christmas and slept and ate at Kempton and it all worked out for the better. They were all on cloud nine for hours after Hewick won, and you can’t buy that feeling.

“When Fugitif won the December Gold Cup, you could see how much it meant to Richard Hobson and owner Carl Hinchy. I could go on, but I think you get what I’m saying - It’s great to be able to play a small part in producing those moments, those feelings are great and the memories last forever.”

In the last year or so, Sheehan’s resurgence can be attributed to the glowing rapport between himself and trainer Jamie Snowden, as the Lambourn handler has been a real fillip for the man from Dunmanway.

“Things weren’t going as well as I wanted, and Jamie invited for me a coffee and we had a chat. We hit it off from day one. You can’t always explain why, but we just clicked.”

Sheehan then goes on to try and put a finger on why things have blossomed so well, with a sign of how well things had gelled between himself and Jamie Snowden, being the victory of You Wear It Well, who stormed to success in the 2023 Mares Novices’ Hurdle, providing Sheehan with his third Cheltenham Festival winner.

“Perhaps Jamie and myself are quite similar - we don’t say a lot, but underneath we have a competitive drive and strive to get better each day.

“Jamie isn’t the type of guy to shout from the rooftops, but when he says something, you listen. In my view he isn’t the type of person to sit around and see if things come to him, he goes out and gets them.

“Of course, we have different points of view on things from time to time, but we always seem to see eye-to-eye on what really matters.

“We can also talk for ages about other things away from racing, and so Jamie is great to be around, and has helped me as a person off the racecourse too and has backed me since day one.”

Who knows what the future holds, and Sheehan admits he has no concrete plans for when the time comes to hang up his boots. In the meantime he has ambitions for more success, but is adamant that he won’t go back to the old ways.

“I won’t let the game eat me up. Now that I am older, it’s that perspective that has probably made me more relaxed. Don’t get me wrong, I will always work hard, and my dream would be one day to win a Cheltenham Gold Cup. However, at the end of the day if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen.

“We can forget sometimes that we are just running and jumping around a field, and there are much bigger things in life to worry about.”