Horse racing podcast: Taking The Reins

We’re now just over the halfway stage of Series One, so what better time to reflect on some of the key stories that have been discussed on the show.

Here, we underline four fantastic sections, one from each episode. Don’t forget, all episodes that have been released in the series so far can be accessed on the Sporting Life YouTube channel or in audio format on your favourite podcast provider if preferred.

Click here to listen for the latest episode on Spotify

Click here to listen on Apple Podcasts

Still to come in Series One...

• Episode 5: Oisin Orr - Sunday December 10, 6pm
• Episode 6: Jason Hart - Sunday December 17, 6pm
• Episode 7: Hollie Doyle - Sunday December 24, 10am

Episode 1: Tom Marquand – Riding his first Group 1 winner with a broken leg:

Marquand: “I think it was the Tuesday, he (Addeybb) was running on the Saturday in the Ranvet Stakes (2020). I was cantering upsides another horse to gallop, and I got kicked and fractured the top of my fibula head.

“I thought that was game over. Obviously because it was covid, the restrictions that were in place were that you could only ride in the city or the provincials, I was riding in the city because I was there for Addeybb.

“I spent a lot of time in the cryotherapy chambers and with the big compression boots on, and some pretty good painkillers and I clawed it back from the depths, telling everyone it was fine when it was broken. I actually waited until the Monday after he won the Group 1 to get it X-rayed, and it was broken. I knew what the score was, but it was something I was willing to do.”

Episode 2: Rossa Ryan on his July Cup in fascinating detail:

Ryan: "There was a lot of relief, I just thought it was a burden that i'd had good chances in group 1s the last two or three years, and I came up short in a couple of them by fine margins, and that was gutterning, and then for Shaquille to win doing what he did, I think it was a bit surreal because what he did mid-race, you know, most, i'd say 99 out of 100 horses wouldn't do."

McNamara: "For those who might not have seen it, can you explain what Shaquille did mid-race?"

Ryan: "He didn't jump, he jumped quicker than he did in the Commonwealth under Oisin (Murphy) and we didn't go mad, and I ended up getting on to the heels of them quicker than I would've probably wanted to, without doing anything. I suppose in the Commonwealth, he got on to the heels of them but they were going a right gallop, so he was able to hang on to him. But the day i rode him, they weren't!

"I got within I'd say a length of Kinross, and I started to see heels coming, and I was like 'ah I can't keep hold of this lad'. To be fair to James Doyle, he told me going out 'just go with him, wherever you are, just go with him', so when I did pull him out I just had to go with him. To be fair to him, once he put his head in front of Tim Easterby's Horse (Art Power?) I could feel stop here now or we're going to go!

“Two out he came right in underneath me and I was ready to go and he picked up and I could see someone coming in the corner of my eye, I think it was Trevor Whelan, and i thought oh no, not again just get to the line, and he got there. It was something special, definitely something you get up every day just to try and get a chance at again, you know?”

Episode 3: Sean Levey – Learning how to ride at Ballydoyle and dealing with being ‘run-away with’ on the gallops:

Levey: "I ended up spending a summer at Ballydoyle, the best thing I’ve ever done. I was riding out at that stage, Aidan wouldn’t actually let me ride this horse at the time, but there was a horse standing-in, and he said, “You can go and bring him back in, he’s been standing in because he’d had an injury, but he’ll be back soon and he’s an older horse.

"He said go and learn how to drive him and get him back nice and steady. I learnt how to long-rein a horse, drive a horse, all that sort of thing, and then progressed to where I had to sit on him, and then rode him out, and I was riding him then for the summer.

"There was another older horse, he used to do all the breezers, he was placed in a Group 3, but he used to run-away with me every day. Every single day, I’d get to the bottom of the gallop and he’d run away with me, I’d go past 5 or 6 horses, on a good day, I might pass the lot of them. I used to think this is not for me like.

"You can ride a horse and they might try drop you, or rear up, or anything but when they run-away with you, that’s the ultimate feeling of ‘you’re totally not in control here’. Then there’s the idea of you don’t know where it’s stopping, and you aren’t bailing out – it’s an unbelievable feeling. You have no trust in the creature at this stage. The fear in me..."

Levey then goes on to share some tales from his pony racing days, before returning to the earlier story, and how he had used his learnings and improvement to gain more control over the same horse which used to run-away with him on the gallops.

Levey: “When I arrived home, I got him again, and when I got to the bottom of the gallops, the fear had gone. Through riding so many different types of horses and being put into so many different situations with horses, I’d learned so many different ways of riding. There is no ‘one-way of riding’, the idea of a horseman is your ability to adapt to different personalities of horses you’re on. Like I said, before I left there, I used to have him up by the rings of the bit, and he’d go even faster with me. So I said, funny enough I’ve rode a horse like you before, and I know what to do today… and I just chucked the reins, dropped my hands, he never went a yard… hacked up! That all came from Pony racing."

Episode 4: Cam Hardie – Early career struggles, drinking before rebuilding his career in the North:

Hardie: “I rode my claim out, and couldn’t get any rides and I was struggling, and because I was struggling, I thought ‘im not good enough, if I was, I’d still be getting rides’. Those were the days I was drinking. It was the middle of that third year that I had to ring Mr Hannon up and tell him I need to go home – he was very supportive and said there’s always a job for you if you want to come back down south. I felt I had to get back to my mother, sort myself out and get straight again. I moved back to Yorkshire and tried to re-set it up again."

McNamara: “I know It’s been a long process and to you it might have felt like years and years and years, but you have built back up to being a real stable northern jockey, who is always consistently riding winners. Now you’re in a decent position where you’re riding quite a lot horses for Richard Fahey and others in the north, you’ve done a pretty good job of rebuilding that career, as difficult as that would’ve been.

Hardie: “Tim Easterby let me in with open with arms when I came back up north, and I was riding out a lot for him, and I started with Quinny too (John Quinn). But it really kicked off when I got the Antony Brittain job. I think PJ McDonald’s wife had just had a baby, so he couldn’t ride, so I had to get down to Chelmsford to ride a couple for him, and that’s where it all started. Me and the little team of 30 horses, we’ve had a great few years.

“I’ve rode him 99 winners so far, and he’s been a real good backer. He’s not just a boss, he’s a friend, and he’s one of them, he understands when things are going wrong and things are bad but we just keep on grinding it out. Look we’ve had a very stable and healthy relationship in this sort of job."

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