Andy McNamara

All my family would have been in racing - my dad trained, my brother Robbie, and we had cousins involved in it as well. John Thomas, my cousin, would have been older and his brother Aongus would have been riding as well. I would have gone racing all the time with dad training. Hunter trials were the biggest thing we were interested in and actually a few of the people I would have ridden with in hunter trials went on to ride a bit as well. My mother brought us everywhere to do hunter trials and hunting. Then I started riding out the racehorses fairly young.

My first ride was in a bumper at Killarney in May 2000 on a mare called Nicholl Lady and she came second. I got beaten by Ian Amond who now works for Gordon Elliott. My cousin Aongus couldn't do the weight, so I got to ride her. She was a bit temperamental in that she refused to start and that. It all went very well and plain and simple for a first ride. After coming so close, it actually took me a long time to get my first winner. I did have a point-to-point winner on my second ride in a point-to-point not too long after that. La Captive was my first winner on the track in a bumper at Wexford in 2002. She was very unfancied. A cousin of mine and a friend led her up. I did quite a light weight and there is a picture of us and I'm gaunt looking in the winner's enclosure.

I went to college for a while. I always thought I was too tall and heavy to turn professional, so I rode as an amateur for Tim Doyle and John Murphy and John started to put me up a lot in professional races. I actually rode more handicap chase winners than bumper winners. He got me going and put me up in the Punchestown Gold Cup as a 7lb claiming amateur for him, but I was in college at the same time. I suppose I got to the stage where I did two years of college and I wasn't getting any heavier and I thought I might be able to give it a go as a professional. I was doing more riding out and less college as time went on. I walked out of it one day and finished the point-to-point season which went well and then turned professional.

The fantastic days mostly came early enough in my career. It was a very exciting time riding and winning on some lovely horses - Newmill in Queen Mother Champion Chase, Beef Or Salmon in Irish Gold Cup, Sizing Europe in Irish Champion Hurdle and Bluesea Cracker in the Irish Grand National. Beef Or Salmon was really a lovely horse to be associated with. The biggest enjoyment I got out of a winner would have probably been him in the Hennessy (at Leopardstown in 2007). I suppose a bit like Honeysuckle now, or Faugheen coming back to win, he was kind of the public hero at the time. It was kind of a funny race, he looked well beaten everywhere and just came from nowhere to get up in the last stride. I think it was more the atmosphere and the reception he got more than anything else.

Those horses that run at a decent level for so long like Hidden Cyclone probably do get into the imagination. He was a very good horse for me but for all he won he never really won a big race, he was second in so many big races. Horses like him I'd have really enjoyed. Tranquil Sea was another I really enjoyed. I had good times riding for Michael Hourigan and Edward O'Grady and the Shark. I won the Galway Plate on Ballyholland (in 2009) for Colin McBratney and Cathal McGovern and I rode him in the English National, he was some jumper. That was good fun in the Plate, I don't think he was overly fancied. We had some joke beforehand - there was a football celebration at the time and we would do it and, as we went to the line, I went to do it and forgot what I was meant to do. I went up the straight with my hand in front of my face - I didn't really know what I was doing!

I absolutely loved being a jockey. I was a bit like going back to school again - you played the game you loved playing and spent all day hanging out with your friends! We had a great section in the weighroom - sitting beside David Casey, Davy Russell, Alan Crowe, Roger Loughran and Mark Walsh. I always had difficulties with weight. I probably spent the 10 years somewhere between mildly and very dehydrated. That's why I finished up as early as I did really. I was always able to make the weight, up until the end I still did 10st 4lb a few times, but I think the body just got worn down from it. I think I wasn't riding as well as I had been, I was tired and sore. I had a horse lined up to ride that I thought was going to be money-on shot and I said I would ride that and go out on a winner. I got jocked off it and Shark Hanlon said he would put me up on a winner. I didn't really believe him, but Shark came good with Most Honourable at Tramore in 2015 and it was a great, fun day. I always liked Tramore.

The plan was in my mind to go training straight away. I'd be very good friends with Ross O'Sullivan and I always kept a horse with him. I think you have less to do with the horse in race riding, but there's an in the moment adrenaline rush and your blood is up whereas training a winner you are nervous watching the race, but you have more of a satisfaction than the heat of the moment. You go out the next day and you are looking at the horse and making a plan. It is probably more of a longer-lasting satisfaction. The buzz of riding a winner goes when you are beaten on the next one!

We have had a lot of luck with older horses who have had bits of issues and I actually quite like having those because most of the success we've had is with horses that have come from bigger yards. It is not that we have improved them or anything, but I suppose we can give them a bit of tender loving care and try something that might help them along. Then if you are getting horses from bigger yards, I suppose they have a bit of ability coming out of there. You can work with ability. If a horse doesn't have ability, it is hard to have success with them no matter what you are doing. I'd say winning Grade 3s with Val De Ferbet and I'm A Game Changer would be the best days I've had training. I was actually working on TV in Fairyhouse the day Val De Ferbet won, so they had me recorded jumping and watching the race! It was good playback.

We'd love to have more horses, we probably have as much as we've ever had - we've 30 in. We've a good bunch of two-year-olds and we might have seven or eight to run over the winter. It is probably easier to get somebody involved in a two-year-old who might be sold on as opposed to buying a horse to stay in training for maybe five years. I'd love to get a couple of good horses. We have a couple of nice ones that haven't run for us yet. I would be dreaming that one of them might be a good horse to take you to big festivals. They mightn't be any good, but they keep you getting up in the morning. It is exciting watching them progress. I love working with horses. Some of them are nicer than others, I always say they are like people - you get every kind of person and every kind of personality of a horse. We are in a fabulous place in Co Meath and it nearly has as good a private gallop as anyone has. It has a mile of a gallop up a good incline of a hill. We've all the stalls and very good schooling facilities. It is a well-equipped place.

The TV work came from a programme a few years ago I did called The Irish Road to Cheltenham that followed a few of us around. Just off the back of that, they were stuck for somebody to do a bit of Cheltenham coverage one day. I enjoy the TV work, they do the big days and I suppose if you are going racing on the big days you feel involved in them when you are doing the TV.