Kieran Callaghan

I’m 19 and from Old Leighlin in Carlow. I’m not from a racing family but some of my school friends were into ponies and I sat up on a pony one day and that was the start of it.

Jimmy Barcoe, who now trains near New Ross, was based near me in Borris at that time and when I was 14 or 15 I started going into his yard on Saturdays and it progressed from there. Jimmy is still very good to me and we talk a lot. I rode a winner for him at Tramore last month and was second on a mare of his at the Punchestown festival.

I didn’t do pony racing and only had eight or ten rides in point-to-points. It’s just the way it happened, I didn’t really have the point-to-point horses behind me and didn’t have those contacts at that time.

I was going on 16 when, after having a chat with Patrick Mullins, I started going into Willie Mullins’ yard. I had been at school in Bagenalstown until I finished my Junior Cert but it wasn’t for me and I was delighted to be out working with horses. I’m in Willie’s six days a week now and it’s a very laid-back place to work in. There’s no bother with anything. There’s so many people there who have given me guidance and advice along the way, there’s the world of good lads there.

It’s obviously a brilliant yard to be part of. No matter what ‘string’ you’re on you always have a great chance. Some of those horses are not really second or third strings, it’s just that Paul Townend has to make a choice and that’s it.

I sit on a lot of different horses there, even some of the big guns from time to time. It’s a case of whoever gets on with the horses rides the horses.

My first winner was in a bumper at Gowran for Barry Fitzgerald and I made a good start for Willie. My first ride for him was third in a good Galway bumper at the festival and my first ride over jumps for him was a winner over hurdles. Thankfully I quickly had a bit of luck for him and he’s been very good to me.

Rock Road in last year’s Mayo National was my first big winner. I’d a couple of winners ridden but I was just after coming onto the scene. It was nice to get onto the horse because I hadn’t ridden a winner over fences at that stage. The horse was quietly fancied so for them to put me on him in a valuable race like that without having much experience over fences was a big thing.

Captain Kangaroo was another big winner for me in the Cork Grand National in October and, as with Rock Road, I was able to claim my full 7lb off 1o stone and he won well. I have no issues with my weight.

Winter Fog was a good winner over hurdles for me at the Leopardstown Christmas festival and was one of two rides I had at Cheltenham in March. Things didn’t work out for them but it was great to be part of it all. I rode out with the team every morning, as I had done last year, but it was great to be involved on the track this time.

The nerves don’t get to me in big races. You know your horse and you know what he’s capable of doing. If it’s happening it’s happening and if it’s not, it’s not.

I still have 8 or 9 winners left with my 7lb claim and I’ve had a good run lately. I had a double at Cork on Easter Monday and we’re coming into a time of year where there are plenty of opportunities for the conditional riders so hopefully I’ll be able to make the most of them. Willie still has some nice horses to run in beginners’ chases and things like that so I might get the chance to get on a few of those and I had a good spell for him this time last year.

I’m happy with how things are going. You can’t rush it and if you start panicking about winners things will go wrong, you just have to let it happen. Sometimes if a lad races through his claim very quickly, it’s great at the time but once the claim is gone, it’s gone and you can be forgotten about.

Garry Cribbin is booking my rides and he has a lot of the best riders in the weighroom. He’s done loads of work for me since I joined him.

I still live at home and Willie’s yard is only a few miles from me. My father is a tillage and beef cattle farmer and my mother is a child-minder. They wouldn’t have had an interest in racing in the past but now they go racing as much as they can and schedule it around work. Saturdays and Sundays they try to go racing and it’s great to have their support.

I used to play hurling and football at school when I was younger, nothing too serious, it was more for fun, but I don’t really have much time for anything else outside of racing at the moment.