Tilley has a ‘Licence’ to win

JOHN Tilley may only be in his first season as a professional rider, but having clocked up his third win in a matter of weeks at Hillcrest when landing the EI 110 (O), he is certainly a force to be reckoned with.

A former manager of a private dental practice, and now resident in Kilkenny with partner Andrew Williams, Tilley was having his first run aboard the duo’s Licence To Cooley, a nine-year-old gelding who arrived in the yard just a few days earlier.

Formerly ridden in Britain by Wills Oakden on behalf of his late owner Ella McGregor, the KWNP registered Licence to Cooley was previously campaigned in Ireland by Katie O’Sullivan.

“We were contacted by Ella’s executors to compete and sell him,” explained Tilley. “He’s a very good horse, which we will continue to run through the grades until he’s sold.”

Having immediately gelled well together, the pair shared second place after dressage and after storming across the country, they reversed placings with the slower Daniel Alderson (Global Javall Gold) leaving Megan Telford-Kelly in third with General Trend.

Capping his successful trip to Hillcrest, Tilley later headed the EI 100 (T) with Carol Gee’s seven-year-old British import Apollo II.