Liam McKenna

I was born in Benburb, Co Tyrone and then I moved out to Blackwatertown about five miles out the road. My mum met James Lambe, my step-father. Some of my family are into horses, but James is into racing and I got into racing through him. If you ask my mum, I was into horses very, very young. Then when we moved in with James, he had a yard full of racehorses. I started off going point-to-pointing with my cousin Conor McKenna (former All-Ireland SFC winner with Tyrone and current Brisbane Lions player in Australian Football League). We would have gone religiously every weekend. Conor's father Pat is a trainer and he's my uncle. He would train as a hobby.

From then on, I knew I was going to be nothing else but a jockey. When I got big enough and strong enough, I started riding out the racehorses. Both Conor and I went at it together. I had my first winner for James on Yachvili over hurdles at Downpatrick (in 2012). It was great to get that first winner up home as there's only two tracks in the north. I went to Harry Fry as a conditional in Britain when I was 18/19, I had ridden five or six winners in Ireland at that stage. It was very different to Ireland - I actually remember going to ride one for Shark Hanlon in Market Rasen and it was five hours to get to the races and it was eight hours coming home with traffic. It was a winner, though!

I was in Harry's for two years on the dot. I suppose the two things I got out of Harry's was that I got to ride a winner at Cheltenham on Unowhatimeanharry (in a conditional jockeys' handicap hurdle in 2015) and I got to work with Noel Fehily. I was able to watch him ride over an obstacle as every Thursday or a Friday he would come in and we would go down and school all the horses. A lot of people you watch on TV and you don't really get to see the connection they have with the horse. I never really settled in England, I was always a bit homesick. I tried it for two years and it was pretty quiet. I broke my ankle and I decided to come home for two months. Then I went back out and I decided I would rather be at home.

When I came home, I started riding out for Gordon Elliott. I had plenty of rides for Gordon - I rode quite a few at the top of the handicap in the Grade A and Grade B chases. I rode Ucello Conti in a Paddy Power chase (runner-up in 2017) and a Thyestes (pulled up at Gowran Park in 2018) as well. Great experience to ride horses like that. I was in Gordon's full-time and decided that it wasn't really for me and that I would go freelance, spread myself out a bit more. I was in Colm's (Murphy), Tony's (Martin) and Matthew Smith's and had myself pretty spread out, and Tony was the main one supplying me.

I smashed my collarbone from a fall at the last fence on Ronald Pump in the Irish National (April 2022). I was out for three months. A week or two before the Galway Hurdle, Tony Martin said he wanted me to have a ride before Galway, so I thought there must have been something coming up. I didn't get a ride, the horse I was jocked up for had a dirty nose. Like everyone else, I put a lot of work in getting back and it was a relief winning the Galway Hurdle on Tudor City last year, more because Tony put me forward to do the job and John Breslin (owner) let me ride the horse. I had been second in so many of the big handicaps and had never got my head in front. Galway was a lovely day and a massive crowd, and it was the big race of the day. Conor and Pat were there and so were some of my family.

In fairness to Tony, he didn't tie me down to instructions on Good Time Jonny in the Pertemps at the Cheltenham Festival this year. The plan was to be halfway down the rail, but it was a standing start and 'Jonny' was slowly away, so obviously I couldn't ride to my instructions then. He felt like he was flat out, so there was no point in trying to make him go any faster - just conserve his energy if I got the opportunity to try and get a bit closer. Bearing in mind it was Cheltenham and I had to get up the hill. Before we turned into the straight, they were all bunched up in front of me and I thought I had a chance of getting a bit of prize money. That's all I was aiming for. Then, three or four strides out from the last, the gap started to close in front of him, but I could feel him picking up and trying to get through it before it closed. Then I knew there was plenty left. He won going away. Completely different to Galway, but as big as Galway. The Galway Hurdle was the big race on the day, the Pertemps was the big race for half an hour and then you have a bigger race coming up next. The years of seeing people walking down that chute after winning, obviously not everybody gets to do it. There's plenty of good riders who have never ridden a winner at the Cheltenham Festival. My sister Nicole was there and, when I was walking back down the chute, I saw local people from back home in Tyrone. You get flashbacks of it now.

Aintree was the exact same as Cheltenham, the only thing is I didn't get the luck (in fourth). He was going to run the exact same race. He probably would have been a very good second - whether he would have beaten the winner or not, we will never know. In Cheltenham the gaps came, and in Aintree they didn't. You always want to be riding in the big races and Galway and Cheltenham gave me a taste of what it is actually like. It gives you a bit more of a drive. I couldn't separate Galway and Cheltenham as my best day in racing.

I've been very lucky to get noticed by Noel Meade. Two weeks after Cheltenham, I rode Nucky Johnson to win a rated novice hurdle at Naas. I will take what comes and am grateful for what he has given me. The goal is to ride out my claim and the seasonal target is to try and win a big race.