Calum Hogan pictured with his dad Ray at Limerick© Photo Healy Racing
I’m 17 and am in Leaving Cert year at Colaiste Na Trocaire in my hometown of Rathkeale. The plan is to stay going with school until the summer and the staff are very good to let me go racing as long as I can manage to do a few classes beforehand. My mam Rose is keen for me to stick with it although, if I had my way, I wouldn’t be there! I’d prefer to kick on full-time with my riding but it won’t be long before I can, I suppose.
My father Ray was a jump jockey who rode plenty of winners for Eric McNamara and Frank Berry. Like myself, he’s tall and weight got the better of him in the end but he still works for Eric and combines that with being a fireman in Rathkeale.
My brothers and sisters aren’t into horses, not yet anyway, but my first cousin Trevor Naughton, who worked for Mr Weld for a while, rode a
good few winners on the Flat including a couple of trebles in Bahrain. I was mad into horses from a young age. I was on ponies from when I was four or five and I started riding out for Eric McNamara when I was around eleven. I rode around ten or twelve winners in pony racing including a winner at the Dingle Derby meeting on a pony called Bubba Watson who was owned by some people from Rathkeale. I had a great pony for a few years called Trigger and he was a dinger. I took him out hurdling and hunting and had great fun with him.
I got a great grounding from my father and also Eric and for a couple of summers I went to Donnacha O’Brien’s place near Cashel and stayed at the yard with Kilian Leonard when I was working there. I learned plenty there and this year I went over to David O’Meara in Yorkshire. I had three rides over there and he was very good to me. The plan was to spend three months there but I missed home and came back after a month. I was probably just a small bit young for the whole thing but it’s amazing the way things work out because the day after I came back to Ireland in June, I rode my first winner. That was Bear Claws at 33/1 at my local track in Limerick. Eric trained the horse and Dad owned him and led him up. He had ridden him work a couple of days previously and told me that he had worked fair well. I knew the horse inside out because he’d been in the yard a couple of years at that stage. He was outpaced going up the back straight and I was scrubbing along but he started to get into the race coming down the hill and I was able to sit up and fill him with confidence. He got a great run down the inner into the straight and won well. It was an amazing feeling, hard to put into words but it’s the feeling that I’ve been trying to catch all the time since I started pony racing. The horse has since moved on and is trained in England now but I’ll always have a soft spot for him.
Shortly after that first winner I started going to Kevin Coleman’s yard near Carrick-on-Suir and, in due course, he took me on as his apprentice. It was great to ride the second winner of my career for Kevin at Dundalk last month. Fleetfootsoldier was the horse and I’d ridden him at home a few times. As Kevin
Calum winning on Fleetfootsoldier at Dundalk© Photo Healy Racing
said himself, he wouldn’t be the easiest ride because he can be free. We were drawn wide and I got him over and slotted in near the back but he was quite lit up. He clipped the heel of Niall McCullagh’s horse twice and I was lucky not to come down, but I got him into a rhythm and he finished off well in the straight to get the job done. Dad was there that night and led me up again.
Like with Bear Claws, I only used my stick a couple of times and I don’t think I’ve ever used it more than four times in a race. Dad drilled that into me over and over when I was pony racing, if you’re beat, put your stick down, and before I go for it I’ll always try and push them and niggle
them and change my hands and do everything else I can before I use it. Hopefully it’s a good habit that will stand to me in the future.
My minimum weight is set at 8st 9lbs at the moment and I’ll ride on the Flat and enjoy it for as long as I can. If I’m doing light I’ll go for a 5k run in a sweatsuit. Either that or luckily one of my Mam’s friends has a sauna which I can use. It’s grand at the moment, but obviously I’m tall so if weight becomes an
issue I’ll have no problem switching to jumping. I’ve done loads of jumping and schooling at Eric’s place.
Kevin has a few to run at Dundalk for the winter but it’s mostly about working with the yearlings in his yard at this time of year and bringing them along. I’m doing driving lessons at the moment but my parents help me out with lifts and, if they have stuff on, I sometimes get a bus over and back to Kevin’s yard at the weekends. It’s about an hour and 40 minutes from Rathkeale. On Wednesday this week I had one ride at Dundalk, which finished second, and I was able to travel up in Eoin McCarthy’s box because he had a runner there. I still go in and ride out for Eric McNamara sometimes as well, his place is less than a mile from our house.
You’re not allowed an agent until you ride three winners but I’m picking up some nice rides and I appreciate all the support I’m getting from trainers. Like I say, the plan is to enjoy riding on the Flat for as long as I can and hopefully the winners will keep coming.
Calum was in conversation with Mark Nunan
