Tom Madden

We are halfway through the season now and I am on course for a season's best total of winners so I’m delighted with the ways things are going at the moment.

I’m kept busy, which is the most important thing, and I’m getting bits and pieces of rides and plenty of winners and to have ridden winners for nine different trainers at this stage of the season is nice and hopefully we can keep adding to that.

I’m working in Jessica Harrington’s four mornings a week and it’s a great time to be there with the calibre of horses that are among her team at the moment and she’s keeping me busy and getting winners then is a bonus.

It is a very exciting time in Jessie’s with Alpha Centauri being the flagbearer and I’ve been lucky enough to ride work with her a few mornings and it’s fantastic. Colm O’Donoghue is obviously stable jockey there and he is a gent. He looks after me and he’d often pull you aside and chat about a few things which is very helpful and he’s a good friend as well so it’s nice to have him there to help me progress.

I’m very fortunate to come from a racing family and to have my father, Boots, and brother Niall, there to chat to as well. Every day coming home from racing, if either myself or Niall had rides, we’d always ring Dad and talk through the race with him, see what he thought or tell him how the race went and with his experience that is a great soundboard to have. Any little bit of advice from Dad or from Niall is always a help. It’s always useful to get the opinion of someone else.

The ball has bounced well for me so far this season and I’m working hard so the aim is to continue that and improve if I can. I’m in Johnny Murtagh’s a couple of mornings a week and I’d be around the Curragh then after finishing with Johnny to ride work for other trainers if they needed me. Johnny is a great man to be associated with as well. He was obviously a world class rider and is another man that isn’t afraid to help you and his horses are flying at the moment so long may that continue.

I suppose at this stage of the season it is nice to be alongside Killian (Leonard) and Ross (Coakley) at the top of the apprentice race but that is not something that I’m overly thinking of, it’s just pleasing to be in that position. Obviously being champion apprentice is something you’d love but at the end of the day I just want to get on as many horses as I can and ride as many winners as I can and the rest will sort of look after itself then. Ireland is so competitive with so many good jockeys here that it really is just nice to be riding at all and getting the opportunity to go to the races with a couple of rides most days.

You have to set yourself some sort of target so it is nice to be in the mix for apprentice title and my agent, Kevin O’Ryan, is a great man to have as he has so many of the top guys that when trainers are looking to claim or if the top lads are not available and trainers want to consider an apprentice you know that Kevin will be throwing your name in the hat and you can’t ask for more than that.

I still have six winners left on my 5lbs claim and I’ve been able to keep my weight fairly good. I’m at the bottom end of the scale with the weights which is a help and it caters for a lot of horses, be it trainers claiming off a top weight or at the likes of Galway in a big handicap maybe someone might want to claim off a lower weight to give them every chance in a competitive race so that is a help.

Growing up there was never really any doubt that I was going to go into racing. The whole family have been around racing all their life. When I was younger I was mad for jump racing but the older I was getting I realised that I was light enough so I said I’d give the flat a go and thankfully it is going well so far.

Riding was a very obvious route for me to take but I had to enjoy it as well to make it work and I certainly am enjoying every bit of it. I’d school the odd quiet one for Dad and maybe if they were stuck in Jessie’s as well and you never know, if I don’t go away for the winter I might ride a few over hurdles for Dad but that’s a long time away yet!

It’s always great to ride a winner for Dad and I was delighted to win on Pass The Ball at Bellewstown and then Niall won on him at Killarney this week so he’s turning into a bit of a legend in the yard now, like Shake The Bucket has been for the last few years. I’m sure Dad will try and find an opportunity for both of them at Galway and if one of them could click there it would be great for everyone.

There are obviously some very good jump horses in Jessie’s as well and it’s brilliant to be able to follow their progress as well but I don’t really have a preference for flat or jumps, horse racing is horse racing and I just love every bit of it.