Kieren Buckley

I grew up in Tiverton in Devon but my Dad, Ned, is from Clonroche in Wexford and we went there every year on our holidays so I would know plenty of people around that area but not so many where I’m based at the moment near Gavin Cromwell’s yard.

Dad was a jockey and rode for Arthur Moore and Terry Casey and when Terry went to train in England, Dad followed him over. After retiring as a jockey he was head lad for Martin Pipe and he met my mum there. She has looked after horses such as Carvill’s Hill and Dynaste.

There are three boys in the family. My brother Tom is a jockey and is one of the conditional riders in Paul Nicholls’ yard and Finn is just starting off in point-to-points. It’s great getting feedback from Dad and Tom about particular races or horses and they’re a great support to me.

Tom is only half my height and half my weight. He’s younger than me but started out under Rules at an earlier stage than I did. As a young teenager I did plenty of hunter trials and showjumping. I had a brief spell point-to-pointing when I was 16 and rode a winner but I walked away from it and I was more focused on golf at that stage. Don’t tell the lads in the weighroom, I might win a few quid off them some day, but I got my handicap down to one and I seriously thought about giving it a go as a professional. I was still riding out for a wage and when I was around 20 I got back into point-to-pointing and I did the conditionals’ course just in the nick of time before the pandemic when amateurs were prevented from riding for a while.

Nigel Hawke was my main man and we enjoyed a good bit of success together. Diligent was a star of a horse for me and I won seven races on him. I rode My Mate Mozzie for Gavin Cromwell at this year’s Cheltenham festival during which he offered me the job as stable conditional. I came over in May and it only took me a few days to settle in. Everyone in the yard has been brilliant to me and very welcoming. I live close to the yard and my girlfriend Sarah has come over to join me which is great and we’re enjoying life in Ireland. I’m in Gavin’s five mornings a week and also ride out for John McConnell and Lorna Fowler.

I think it was a blessing in disguise that I didn’t keep kicking when I was 16 because I probably would have been burnt out in a few years. I don’t think I was mentally ready to be a professional jockey then because I was a little bit more hot-headed. I’m 25 now and I feel I’m better able to deal with falls, getting jocked off, getting beat on favourites, all the ups and downs of a jockey’s life.

I’ve had to learn fast in Ireland with all the new tracks to get used to. I make sure to have a walk or a run around any track that is new to me and I look at lots of replays to figure out what way to ride it. The likes of Downpatrick and Tramore are pretty unique! I like to think I do my homework and I’ll watch plenty of replays of the previous races of any mount I get and study the opposition as well.

It took me six weeks to ride my first winner in Ireland which felt like an age. I had a few close seconds but you can give a runner-up the best ride in the world but it won’t get noticed because everyone is watching the winner. Thankfully the first winner came in mid-July on a spare ride for Eddie and Patrick Harty at Kilbeggan and things have started to click since then. I’m getting more rides and more opportunities. With the bigger field sizes in Ireland there’s more of a chance of picking up spares than in Britain where the number of runners has become such an issue.

It was great to ride my first winner for the boss as well when Hascoeur Clermont, ironically one of the few horses in the yard I hadn’t sat on at home, won at Sligo.

The most valuable race I won in Britain was a 0-130 handicap chase with a first prize of seven thousand pounds whereas the least valuable I’ve won over here was an 80-95 handicap hurdle which was worth six thousand Euros to the winner, so the prize money here is unbelievable. With seven winners on the board this season, I was able to get myself a new car earlier this week!

I’m looking forward to the winter and Gavin has an exciting team of horses to go to war with. I’ve made a few trips back to Britain to ride a few for John McConnell during the summer and I might be able to do something similar during the winter on days when there’s no racing in Ireland. I left Nigel’s on good terms and might be able to ride one or two of his horses if it’s feasible. He has a lovely young hurdler called Galore Desassences who was third in the Dovecote at Kempton in February. I’ve won three on him and it would be nice to retain the partnership if I happened to be available. But Gavin has been so good to give me this opportunity that my commitments to him obviously come ahead of everything else.