Tom Madden

It was a nice thing for the family when Niall and I both rode winners at Roscommon on Tuesday, me on Pipers Bomb for Ado McGuinness, and him on De Name Escapes Me for Noel Meade. A lot of people wouldn’t know it but Willie McCreery is my mother’s first cousin and he trained a winner too, Faerie Laws, making it a momentous occasion for the clan.

Myself and Niall had a winner each on the same day a few years ago but it was at different meetings. I was at Limerick and Niall in Punchestown. So it was the first to do it at the same place and we enjoyed it.

Niall was playing flat jockey for the day but he’d better not start getting any ideas. I’m happy if he sticks to the jumps and I will play flat jockey!

He has been a great help to me as I started racing. He is always there to ask questions of. Himself and Dad were great mentors for me growing up. They were never afraid to beat me into shape. I would be lost without them.

A great friend of the family, Brendan Bashford was the first person to call me Socks. Dad was called Boots when he worked in Edward O’Grady’s and everyone knows him as that now. I’m not sure when Niall became Slippers but I was next in line and Socks stuck.

I was never really going to do anything else but be a jockey like Niall and Dad. When I was young I was playing football and interested in soccer. At one stage I wanted to drive trucks! I didn’t know myself.

I was good friends with Sean Corby, we went to school together and went racing together. I realised that Dad was training horses and Niall was racing. I got bitten by the bug that way.

I did pony racing for two years, when I was 14 and 15. It was a great grounding before I went to the track.

Since I got my licence, the progress has been steady and looking back now, it has been great that way. A few years ago, I was thinking I would have loved to have done it quicker but have had 80 winners now and am 15 away from losing the claim, so hopefully I can do that by the end of the year or early next year. It’s not always great to lose it very young.

I have learned a lot. I am a late bloomer. I am getting the hang of things and everything is falling right. I have gotten a good job in Jessie Harrington’s now as number two to Shane Foley, and I am getting rides and winners from Ado McGuinness. I can’t complain at the moment and hopefully I can get the odd win or two along the way to help.

Susiecot (Cork 2013) is a first track success for jockey Tom
© Photo Healy RacingI had my first winner on Susiescot for my aforementioned second cousin, Willie McCreery at Cork in October 2013. Willie gave me a few rides when I started off claiming 10 and we got on well. I had one or two more winners for him. It was great starting off.

There were lots of enjoyable days since, including riding a treble at Dundalk last year on Red Charmer, Pulsating and Echo Park for Marjorie Fife, Conor O’Dwyer and Jessie Harrington, but it is hard to beat winning on Shake The Bucket, which I have been lucky enough to do four times.

I would love to win on him everyday of the week. He is a family horse, trained by my father and owned by my sister, Sarah Ann. He is a legend around the yard. He is a character. It is like one of your best friends. I know it is only mediocre racing, but we all get a kick out of him winning, and each one is better than the last. And he has won 15 times, on the all-weather, over hurdles and over fences.

He is 12 now but as enthusiastic as ever. We got a great kick out of it when he won the handicap chase in Limerick at the end of May. He had won at Dundalk at the start of the month. He still goes out on the gallop every morning and he would run away with you. We love him.

Having a horse like that in the yard is important for Dad and Pass The Ball has been very versatile too. They are good work horses as well and if a young horse can go with them, they aren’t bad.

It was a real boost at the start of the year when Jessie said to me that Shane was going to be her number one and I was her number two. It is an honour. I have been there the last three years. I was getting bits and pieces. Whatever Shane doesn’t ride I ride and there are so many good horses, that sometimes I might be lucky and what I’m on might shake a leg better than his one! He will have commitments in England at times too as well for Mr Zhang, so there will be plenty opportunities. I feel more part of the team now.

Jessie is a great woman to work for. She is not afraid to tell you as it is as well. It is a bit like Dad. They are hardy out. I am used to that at this stage. At least they have a bit of interest in you. That’s the way I see it.

And Jessie is very easy to ride for. Having been there the last three years, I know how she likes her horses to be ridden anyway.

Kevin O’Ryan is my agent since Day One. He has been doing well for me and I am picking up a lot of outside rides too. He got me on one of Sir Mark Prescott’s in Dundalk in January that won, Master Diver. He has a lot of contacts and everyone knows him.

I don’t want to set too much big targets. But it would be great to get rid of the claim towards the end of the year. It’s something to aim for but other than that, it’s about riding nice horses and winners.