At the beginning of this season, I had yet to ride a winner from over forty attempts. I wouldn’t say I was getting frustrated but was definitely starting to think was it ever going to happen. Having spoken to a lot of the lads, I was surprised to find some that you wouldn’t have thought would have taken so long to ride their first winner. As is so often the case, when I did eventually ride a winner at Leopardstown earlier this month, I followed it up with another on my very next ride. 

I don’t come from a horsey family, so I wouldn’t have been going racing every Sunday. I started off by going to the local riding school at home in Cobh, owned by my cousin Teresa McCarthy. I would have learned the basics there but aside from that and competing in a couple of newcomer competitions at local shows, that was all.