Gary Noonan

I’m 25 years of age and from Newcastle West in Co Limerick. We always had ponies around the place at home and I used to go hunting with my father at weekends. I did a bit of pony racing and rode ponies for Billy Lee’s father, Michael.

I went to RACE in Kildare and I was sent to Dessie Hughes after graduating from there. Dessie was a great boss and there were lots of good jockeys in the yard at the time including Bryan Cooper, Roger Loughran and Mark Enright. I knew Mark from home and shared a house with him in Kildare town. I loved working in Dessie’s and I got to ride some high-class horses on the gallops and to school them as well. Dessie gave me a good few rides and I probably should have won on one or two but it didn’t quite happen.

My first winner came at Listowel in 2019 on Sand Fly for Paddy Neville who would be local to me. Paddy’s doing well in England now. Listowel is one of my local tracks so it was great to get the first winner there. I was still an amateur and riding in point-points at the time. I turned conditional in 2020 and Garry Cribbin, who is one of the best in the business, became my agent at the same time.

Things picked up for me last season and I had six winners and rode for loads of different trainers. I’m always available to go and school horses for any trainer that wants me. The new season has started well and I’m getting on a lot of horses with chances. Most of the horses I’ve ridden in the last few weeks have finished in the money and it was good to ride a winner for Paul Flynn on The Grey Lad at Down Royal last week.

At the moment we have a run of meetings for conditionals and riders who haven’t ridden a certain number of winners in the last year. Unfortunately I picked up a suspension which ruled me out for a few days this week but I’ll be back at the weekend and for the remainder of these meetings. Then we have the two-week break with no jump racing. To be honest, I’ve a bit of momentum built up at the moment and I’d be quite happy to keep going racing but I suppose it’s good to recharge the batteries as well. Myself and my partner have a few days in Greece booked and hopefully we’ll get through Dublin airport without too many problems!

By the time I get back Eoin McCarthy will be getting going with his Listowel horses, getting them ready for the Harvest Festival in September. Eoin is based near me in Athea and I’m in his yard most days. He has been very good to me and has given me plenty of opportunities. I rode four winners for him last season.

I’ve ridden 14 winners in total and have another 11 left to lose my 7lb claim. That will be the aim for this season. I’m a natural lightweight and can do 9 stone easily. I could even do 8st 11lb but I haven’t taken out a Flat licence thus far as I don’t really have that many connections to Flat yards. It’s something that I might consider in future, particularly when my claim is down to 5lb.

I do a bit of pre-training and schooling for clients as well, including doing the groundwork with some of Eoin McCarthy’s young horses. Michael Hourigan junior is good enough to let me use the facilities at his place.

Hopefully things will continue to go well and I’m looking forward to a good season if I can stay in one piece.