Conor McNamara

Killarney is a place I have fond memories of, having ridden my first winner there for my dad Eric last August, so it was great to boot home a winner around there again yesterday (Thursday) on Lucky Road for Gavin Cromwell, who has been so good to me.

Lucky Road has been good to me too, as we also won together at Sligo on Sunday. We felt it would suit him to step up in trip on the bit of better ground and it wasn’t the strongest affair. He was good so we’d no choice but to go again with the five-pound penalty as he was gonna go up 15 pounds.

He was a bit in my hands the whole way but he was good and tough and ground it out well for a four-year-old. Once he straightened up for home and jumped the second last, he was good after that.

There’s more in him hopefully. He’s only four. He was bought at the August Sale last year for cheap money and he stays well. His dam is a half-sister to Road To Respect so he stays well and he’ll be a nice horse in time. He’s only learning his job now really.

It has been great to three winners in seven rides since winning on Celtic Dancer for Dad on home turf in Limerick on Saturday. That brings the tally for the season to six, after having five last year but it’s the yards I’m riding for really.

Dad’s horses are really starting to get back into top gear now. There’ll be a good few there for Listowel and he’ll have them on point no doubt.

Gavin’s horses are flying. It’s 19 winners in 16 days or something like that, which is incredible and everyone in the yard is on a high. There’s a good vibe in the place. He just has a real nice team of horses at the moment. They’re working well, they’re loving the good ground.

Feidhlim Cunningham, who’s my agent, picks out a lot of the horses for Gavin to buy and picks out a lot of the races for them and he seems to be top notch at his job. It’s proven over the last couple of months.

Obviously Espoir D’Allen winning the Champion Hurdle brought Gavin to the attention of a wider community and with a group winner on the flat as well on Arc weekend, he can do it all, as we’ve been seeing of late.

He’s brought Espoir D’Allen along beautifully. His work got better as the season went along, his running was getting better as he got fitter. It was nice going to Cheltenham with little pressure and Mark Walsh gave him a beautiful ride and he won well. I think it was a very good decision not to run him in Punchestown after that. He’s only a five-year-old and he’ll be better again this winter, if you can imagine that.

I got the chance to school him before he won his first race in Naas in November and he’s a bunny to lep. I remember Barry Geraghty telling me one day, those good horses are incredible over two miles. To just go down to a hurdle, you’re going so fast, and you can feel them three strides out have a little look and they’re bang on. And that’s exactly what he rides like. He works like a good horse, he jumps like a good horse. He has everything you want for a good horse.

I started at Gavin’s the week after Galway last year. I had been at Dermot Weld’s before that but was always going to be too big to be a flat jockey. Dad said to me once I left Mr Weld’s that the main thing would be to get experience.

So I have spent every Monday in the past year at Enda Bolger’s. That’s been crucial. You’re riding work with the likes of Donie McInerney, Mark Walsh, Darragh O’Keeffe, Jody McGarvey and Ray Barron, all tidy riders. Enda could take you anywhere and it would set your eye up for any kind of a stride and any kind of a jump. And that’s what it’s about, getting your horse balanced and jumping.

I needed four days a week at a yard where I could potentially get going and it has been excellent at Gavin’s. I won on Clash Of D Titans for him at Leopardstown at Christmas and it snowballed from there.

The last month, I’m going to Willie Mullins’s on a Thursday and a Saturday. That came out of a spare ride at Punchestown and that is a great opportunity. Riding out with Ruby Walsh, Paul Townend, David Casey, Rachael Blackmore, Brian Hayes, you have to learn.

I grew up around horses with Dad training plenty of big winners and always dreamt of being a jockey. Mam and Dad wanted me to do my Leaving Cert and although I couldn’t wait to get it out of the way, it’s a good thing to do. It’s important to have something if racing doesn’t work out.

I had about 70 or 80 rides in pony racing, about five or six winners and about 25 placed horses. It was about getting my eye in, riding for a few local lads on ponies I knew. I could be experimenting and trying different things and I learned so much there.

Learning is ongoing and I definitely learned a lot just by watching at Mr Weld’s. I wanted to tidy myself up, make myself into a jockey. When I got too heavy I went back home and Dad is always good for advice and rides.

I worked a bit for Robbie McNamara and he was very good to me. He gave me six or seven rides and around four of them were placed. Robbie Mac was one of the best amateurs we ever saw. I lived with him for a while and he’d sit you down and go through races. He taught me an awful lot about how to trust a horse, get a horse jumping, how to get a horse on the ball, how to switch a horse off, the way to ride different tracks. He was invaluable.

Riding the first winner on Offshore Oscar was great and to do it for Dad and the owner Aidan Ryan was great. I am happy with how things are going and don’t want to be still riding like a seven-pound claimer when I’m down to three. I’m happy to take my time and not get there before I’m ready.

Racing is tough. You see it with Dad. He won three Kerry Nationals, a Munster National, plenty of graded races and things went quiet but he’s done well with Percy Veer, who he bought cheaply and is building up again.

My brother Emmet was champion pony rider and champion apprentice and rode a lot of winners. He is still one of the best riders out there in my opinion but opportunities became scarce. He is in Ballydoyle now and he still gets to race on some lovely horses but it’s tough.

So I know what it’s like and all I can be sure of is that I will work hard, not get ahead of myself and hope things fall my way. That’s why I won’t be setting any targets apart from trying to get better all the time.