Leigh Roche

When you are starting off as first jockey, you need a horse to take off or to get some early winners and luckily enough, Michael O’Callaghan’s horses are in great form. We hit the ground running. It was a big help banging in a few early winners and two more last week keeps the ball rolling. I am so grateful to Michael and the owners for giving me this opportunity.

We always thought a lot of I Am Superman last year. Ian Queally rides him out every day and he actually does a superb job because he’s not the easiest to handle. He only had a mark of 79 this year and Michael placed him very well to win twice.

What we found out in the Tetrarch was that it was a week too soon — it was his third race in the space of four weeks. He pulled a front shoe early on in the race as well. Everything went against him that day. We can put a line through it. There is plenty of improvement in the horse. He is very smart.

At the moment, the plan is to let him take his chance in the 2000 Guineas and he’s definitely one to look forward to for the year ahead.

Michael has already sold Geneticist, who was a very good maiden winner at Limerick, and Bodhicitta, who was placed twice and I was under no illusions about the fact that this was the business model.

It is grand winning with horses and holding onto them but you have to pay the bills and the operation pays for itself. Michael is very good at buying good, young horses but he needs to keep doing that to keep the wheels on the wagon. Hopefully we will get a few nice horses in the meantime.

Michael mentioned Royal Ascot as a possibility for Lorelei Rock after she won on debut at Naas on Saturday. She will improve from that as you would expect but she will need to, to be going to Ascot. She is a smart filly. With a cut in the ground she can be a very smart filly. Fingers crossed that will happen for her.

There are around 35 or 40 horses at Crotanstown at the moment. There are still a lot of nice maidens there and one or two nice three-year-olds that are still to come out too as well as the two-year-olds.

I spent the winter riding in India and I loved it. I rode a lot of winners and a lot of classic winners and that meant I was riding with a lot of confidence when I came back home.

I have been away before and rode nine winners in New South Wales in Australia when I had a spell with Chris Waller. I had a great time in India though, winning the Indian 1000 Guineas, Bangalore 1000 Guineas, Chennai 2000 Guineas and Hyderabad Oaks among other big races.

I was riding for Pesi Shroff, who rode against the likes of Mick Kinane and Niall McCullagh and is sort of the Aidan O’Brien of India now. It was a brilliant opportunity and having Robbie Downey over there too was a great help, as there were only three international riders. David Allan was the other.

Bercasa brought my tally to six at Leopardstown on Sunday and that was my first outside winner of the campaign. It was my first for a trainer other than Michael so that was welcome. Ireland is so competitive. I do a morning in Willie McCreery’s and a morning in Fozzy Stack’s as well. It is just to get your name out there.

To get one for Tom Mullins was nice. Luckily enough I could do the 8-4, so I could get on her. Tom is a sound man and he is well able to produce them. It is great to get a winner for him.

Kevin O’Ryan is my agent and he is on the ball. He looks after everyone. He doesn’t push somebody. He rings the trainers and tells them who he has. It depends then if the trainers want you. He is great, especially when the English lads are coming over.

I come from Tuam originally and first got into pony racing, where I was champion one year. I went to RACE and moved from there to join Dermot Weld, where I was until the end of last year. I had some great times there, winning a Group 3 on Big Break five years ago. I had two more on Hit The Bid for Darren Bunyan and Making Light, also for Dermot. I had a great time at Rosewell House — to be riding for Moyglare Stud, the Aga Khan and Juddmonte was brilliant.

The best thing about all that time though was that it enabled me to come into contact with Pat Smullen. For any jockey to be getting that experience when you’re young, riding work with a Champion every day of the week, it’s just going to stand to you. Pat is the ultimate professional.

I learned so much from him about race-riding, about pace, tactics, the whole lot. But his advice was just as important out of the saddle, whether it came to not wasting money or buying a house, because I wouldn’t always have been the most sensible. He probably saved my job two or three times as well putting in a good word for me!

Everyone was shocked when we found out he had cancer but nobody was shocked by the way he took it on. I don’t think there was going to be any other outcome only he’d get better.

It would have been great if he could have made it back to the weigh room but he was right to retire and it is brilliant that he can do it healthy. He doesn’t need to come back to prove anything to anyone and there’s a lot more to life than riding horses. He will be brilliant on television because of his expertise and of course he knows the Flat form inside out. Himself and Fran Berry are great additions to the coverage of racing on TV, even though both have had to call time on riding earlier than they would have planned.

It is a real comfort to me to know that I still have Pat on the other end of the phone. You can question him on any sort of thing. He has been around the block and knows it all. I would trust him completely.

You could never dream of having a career like Pat Smullen’s, but we are all ambitious and want to do the best we can, ride lots of winners, plenty of nice horses that bring you to the big races. I feel like I am in a good place now for that to happen more consistently, but will just continue working hard at Michael’s and hopefully the good start to our partnership will continue.