Sarah Kavanagh

I'm with Colm Murphy full-time and am in there every morning. Wednesdays I get a day off so I go into Pat Foley's. I'm in Colm's every Sunday. I don't venture around too many yards, Colm's very busy at the minute, and we'll see how things click. I had a lot of nice rides for him last season and I was just unlucky. I should have really rode four or five winners for him but I was just unlucky that I bumped into a better horse on those days.

We're getting in a lot of horses, there's a lot of new faces in there now so it's good to see the place so busy. With more horses there's going to be more opportunities so, if I stay put, hopefully my goal will come to me. I'm from the Ardcavan area, near enough Castlebridge not far from Wexford town and Colm is only twenty minutes down the road from my house in Killenagh, just south of Gorey.

I've been with some good trainers and have learned a lot along the way. I've done my travelling but I'd still pop in and out of point-to-point yards at home because you can never learn enough off them, they'd always be going away schooling. In the evenings I go to Pat O'Rourke's and Jimmy O'Rourke's and I'd be riding out breakers there and doing schooling with them and, come the winter time, I'll probably be going on from there and helping the the point-to-point lads because their yards are going to be so busy once their season gets going.

I'd still trick around with a lot of point-to-point yards and you can never do enough schooling with all of them.

My mother and father would have had a lot of half-breds when I was growing up, they would have done a lot of breeding. My father would have been massive into horses so I would have got the love of horses from him. I would have sat on ponies and been led around when I was smaller but I actually didn't start riding horses until I was eighteen. I went over to Newmarket and I went to the Racing School there. I left three weeks before my Leaving Cert and my mother wasn't happy about that but I booked a plane ticket and went ahead. I just decided that was what I wanted to do and I was doing it. My mother knows that I'd be very stubborn, it's my way or the highway. I was never someone that wanted to be in school or stuck behind a desk, I always wanted to be outside playing with the animals, be it the dogs or the chickens, the ducks or the horses.

My first winner was Demophon at Down Royal on Saint Patrick's Day in 2020. He was trained by Gavin Cromwell who I was based with at the time and owned by a very nice man called Pat McGuinness. With all the restrictions caused by Covid, Pat decided not to continue with owning the horse and gave it to me. I rode him a couple more times after that and then he was retired. Pat was very good to give that horse to me and I loved him.

I rode in a few point-to-points, I had a few rides for some of the local lads in Wexford and that was all a massive help to me. I was in Denis Murphy's, James Doyle's, Mick Goff's, there are so many point-to-point yards where I'm from that when you're done with one lad, you'd be literally skipping on to the next person to help them out for the morning. I rode a horse of Pat Fahy's in a point-to-point and Pat said "I want you to turn conditional, would you come and work for me?", so I talked it through with Mick Goff who I was working for at the time and he told me to go for it, that it was a massive opportunity.

So I moved to Pat and he taught me a lot, he's a very good man to teach you and a good man to speak to. I rode a lot of horses for him and got on very well, I was unfortunate not to ride a winner for him. Then Pat said you deserve more opportunities, you need to go somewhere where you're going to be able to get on a few nicer horses and ride winners. I was freelancing for a while, I was mad when I think about it, getting up at four o'clock to drive to Limerick to go up to Enda Bolger's for a few days, or to John Ryan's in Tipperary. I could be anywhere but I was just trying to learn my trade more than anything.

At that time I would have been asking my mother for fifty euro to put in the car, that I'd promise to pay her back. I'm very headstrong, if I want to do something I will do it. I'd be a fitness fanatic as well, I'm a very fit person and I love going to the gym, I love being busy. I'd go to the gym most days, if I'm not in the gym, I'm walking, if I'm not walking, I'm hiking up a mountain. When I left Gavin Cromwell's I did a part-time course in personal training and nutrition. I did that for a year and a half and I loved it but I just couldn't get rid of this bug, I just wanted to ride horses and that was it. It's all I want to do. I know there are people who say when they're done, they might do this or do that, but I just love it so much I can't see myself doing anything else.

When I was in Gavin's I got more experience and got to ride nice horses and I was there for about a year and a half. I loved it up there but I just got a little bit homesick so I said I'd come back home for a little while and see how I was getting on. Then I was out for nearly a year, I got very sick with clots in my lungs and I was told I'd never be allowed to ride horses again.

Then I rang Colm Murphy and told him that I'd been out for a year and that I was just looking to get back riding out, that I didn't want to be travelling everywhere, and that we'd see how I'd get on. So I started in Colm's and I love it there, he's a great man to work for and he won't keep you any longer than you need to be there. He's very genuine and straight to the point. He's got a great team of staff, we all work together. Usually every summer he'd let people off because horses would go out on breaks but we didn't do that this year because we're so busy. Brian Hayes, Richard Condon and Liam McKenna are the other jockeys who work there.

Colm is the fairest man I've ever worked for. I can sit down and have a conversation with him and say, "Look Colm, what do you think I need to do, why didn't I ride that horse, what am I doing wrong?," and he'd be very good to sit down and say, "Look Sarah, you need to work on your drive or whatever". He said to me the opportunities will come but you need to work on yourself which is fair enough. I would rather be told these things straight up, I thrive off that because at least then I know what I need to work on. I'm hard enough on myself as it is anyway because I just want to do well. The dream is to be the next Rachael Blackmore but I've got to be realistic too. You've got to start small and just stay working towards your goal. My goal this year was seven winners and I thought, starting off, that was a massive goal to be setting myself but I've already had three winners this year.

We've got a lot of young horses in Colm's and they're all ready to run in the next year and he's running a lot more on the track now, so hopefully that will get me kick-started and if I ride a few more winners, that will keep me happy. I love my job and I'm happy where I am. I'm making a living now and have a wage coming in every week. When I look at my bank balance on a Friday, I'm like "that's great" instead of going around asking my mam for money. I'd still drive anywhere to ride one horse if someone asked me to school one in Sligo or Cavan, I'd say "grand, I'll be up there at three o'clock" but it's nice to be in a position where I have a steady income coming in.

I'm a very determined person, I have my heart set on this and hopefully it'll all work out. I live with my mother and she's very supportive. She'd often say to me, "I wish you were like a normal girl, you could be a hairdresser" but I'd say to her, "but then I wouldn't be happy."

I'm a very active person, I like being busy and I like going into Colm's on a Sunday. Other people would say I'm nuts but I don't want to be in the bed when I can work, you're not going to get anywhere being in the bed. In a year I've probably had two Sundays off. I'm very focused and everyone who knows me knows that. I've missed out on weddings or occasions that I should have been at with my friends but they're all very good and very understanding. They know racing comes first for me no matter what.

My experience of race-riding is standing to me now and I've been surrounded by a lot of good people. It was just about getting a bit tougher and learning the tricks of the trade. You can't beat experience. Being a jockey is challenging but no matter what you do in life, it's all a challenge.

I've been with Garry Cribbin the last few months. My previous agent Ruaidhri Tierney told me to go to Garry because he said that him having Rachael would be a massive benefit to me. Fair play to Ruaidhri for saying that because he was losing a jockey and losing income by doing that. I've ridden two winners since joining Garry and he's absolutely brilliant and a massive help to me.

Paul Nolan is only down the road from me and I was going into Paul's for a couple of weeks before Covid. He's an absolute gentleman and the Nolans rang me to ride Feet Of A Dancer at Wexford in June. I said you may ring Garry but they said they wanted me to ride her and that was point blank. It was nice to ride a winner at my local track for local men, it was a very special day.