This current flat season, our first full campaign since taking out a trainers licence, is one I am very much looking forward to. Having returned to Ireland in 2019, I bought a farm in County Cork and set about developing a training facility suitable for our needs. The financial side of such an operation is just as important, so before sending out any runners, I worked hard on building solid foundations on which to base the business. Once everything was in place, we sent out our very first runners in late 2022.

Like most young lads of my generation, I started off with ponies and gymkhanas. My father was friendly with Alan and Lady Vivienne Lillingston of Mount Coote Stud and acted as DC of the Scarteen Pony Club.

Having learned how to ride on ponies at home, I started riding out for local trainer Cathy Harrison in my early teens. We used to gallop the horses at Andrew McNamara’s in Croom, then Cathy would drop me to school on our way home -more often than not, I was late!

Andrew said I could come in and ride out at his yard at weekends and school holidays, so I did that for a couple of years. Then, Alan Lillingston had a word with me, suggesting that if I was serious about becoming a flat jockey, the Curragh was the place to be. He kindly arranged for me to go up and spend a summer working for leading trainer Liam Browne.

I was only 14 when I first went to the Curragh but I knew immediately it was for me. The following year, I left school and signed on as an apprentice with Liam. I rode my first winner, Miss Gantlet, in a two-year-old maiden at Navan in April 1989.

Over the next few years, I rode plenty of winners for the stable, before I moved back to Limerick to ride for Austin Leahy. We enjoyed some good success together and between Liam and Austin, I rode over 40 winners in Ireland. In 1993, I moved to Britain to take up the position of stable apprentice to Michael Bell.

Having hit the ground running, riding 14 winners that first year, we ended up enjoying a highly successful 10-year partnership. In 2001, we combined for my first Group 1 win, when Zanzibar claimed the Italian Oaks at San Siro. Later, after making the decision to ride as a freelance jockey, I continued to ride winners for the Bell yard.

In October 2005, I enjoyed a second taste of Group 1 success, aboard Alcazar in the Prix Royal Oak at Longchamp. It was fitting that the Hughie Morrison-trained gelding should get his turn, as he had been placed the two years previously. Speciosa, the Pam Sly-trained filly with whom I will always be associated with, came along earlier that same year.

Having won her maiden at Beverley in August(2005), she finished third in the May Hill Stakes, before rounding off her season with a win in the Rockfel Stakes at Newmarket.

At that point, we knew we had a genuine Classic contender for the following year but her comeback victory in the Nell Gwyn Stakes confirmed our belief that she had trained on from two to three. Less than a month later, Speciosa provided me with the biggest success of my career when winning the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket.

Over the next seven years, I continued to enjoy plenty success riding for Pam, James Given, Tom Tate and Paul Midgley, among others. In 2013, I suffered a broken neck in a fall at Chepstow, which forced me to call time on my riding career.

At the time, it was certainly a shock; racing was all I knew and I had made no plans for a life outside of it. I wasn’t able to even sit on a horse for over a year, as I underwent intense physio in order to get the strength back in my neck. On a visit to my brother and sister-in-law, I took the first steps towards getting my life with horses back.

Emma (Lavelle) is a well known trainer and I asked if I could ride out a lot. It was as if I had never been away and I knew almost immediately that I wanted to continue working within the industry.

Despite having ridden as a successful jockey, most of that time had either been spent on horseback or in a car travelling to and from races. I knew that I wanted to train but in order to do so, I needed to learn about everything from feeding and treating minor injuries to traveling horses and running a business. The opportunity to do so came via a position as Assistant Trainer to Chris Wall in Newmarket.

During a two-year stint, I started from scratch, receiving a thorough education on a side of the industry I knew little about. It was an invaluable experience that set the foundations for a future training career. I then went on to spend a season with Charlie Appleby; again, another huge learning curve.

Having sourced a small 12-acre farm halfway between Killarney and Mallow, our family relocated to Ireland just before Covid. My wife Stephanie, who is a big support to me, worked for Dandy Nicholls, so knows the business well. We did much of the work on the yard/gallops during lockdown, so we were fortunate in that we were able to put the time in and tailor everything to suit.

Ann Cowley, an owner I had ridden for in the UK, phoned me up during lockdown to ask what I was up to. When she heard that I was setting up a training operation in Ireland, she promised to send some horses. Denis Enright of Munster Racing Partnership also rang up and said that he would like to get involved. I went and bought Run Forrest Run for him at the July Sales last year.

That horse had a few minor problems that we needed to iron out but he ran a big race when third at the Curragh recently and is going the right way. John Sheehan, who used to train in England, kindly sent us a few horses to get us started too. Sadly, he passed away from cancer at Christmas so never got to see their progress.

His brother, Patsy, is continuing on with the journey, so hopefully we can both do John proud. Having not ridden professionally for over a decade, I am relishing this new venture; building the training business, going racing again, meeting people and generally just appreciating an industry that has been my life.

Mickey Fenton was in conversation with John O’Riordan