Colm O'Donoghue

It was around the Killarney July Festival last year that I left Ballydoyle after 21 years there and it was certainly a big move but it was a decision that I didn’t take lightly.

It was a choice I made for myself but I had enjoyed 21 amazing years there and some massive success and I was very lucky to have worked with Aidan O’Brien, Mr. Magnier and all his family. I worked with some brilliant people, Seamie Heffernan, Mick Kinane and all the great jockeys that went through there over the years but it came to the stage where I felt I needed to push myself that little bit more.

I’m a great believer that if you give somebody a responsibility that you can bring out the best of them and I had the position with Jessica Harrington and she had a nice team of horses and some nice two-year-olds coming along so I said that I’d do it for myself and have no regrets.

I got to a stage where I had won major races and I had been privileged enough that Aidan gave me the chance in so many Group 1’s all over the world. I’ve ridden in the Arc, Breeders’ Cup, Derby’s, I’ve ridden in Japan, in Australia… so you either want to go to the next level for yourself or you are just going to level off and be happy with your lot and I like to push myself and keep going. After 21 years it wasn’t an easy decision but it was one that I felt confident I had to do.

To win an Irish 1,000 Guineas then for Jessie last Sunday was just fantastic. Alpha Centauri has always been a very good filly but just doesn’t want extremes of ground, either very testing or very firm, and she showed plenty of class to go and pick Aidan’s filly up to win the Guineas on Sunday. Jessie is incredible really and I’m blessed to have the job to ride for her because she gives me so much responsibility and the confidence to ride the race as I find it and change things as I want.

The way it is there is that Jessie prepares the horses and she trains them impeccably and then I ride them and it is my responsibility when they get out on the track and any jockey will always tell you that when you’ve got free hands like that it is just a great feeling.

But it doesn’t matter if it was at the highest level of Flat or National Hunt racing or with the lower grade horses, Jessie just manages to win with them all and the horses are consistently running very well. It is exciting coming up to Royal Ascot to see the team taking shape.

Torcedor will go for the Gold Cup and he is a horse to very much look forward to. Big Orange is out of the race this year unfortunately for his connections but Order Of St George probably put up his best two pre-Ascot performances of any year and he’ll be a tough nut to crack. Having said that, Torcedor has plenty of pace and stays well so we’ll give it a shot.

Brother Bear will possibly go for the Jersey Stakes and Alpha will hopefully come out of the Guineas in good form and that is not to mention the possibility of some two-year-olds to go there as well so it is exciting times.

For the likes of Royal Ascot you would always be hoping that something else might pop up as well. Godolphin have been very good supporters of mine over the years and Charlie Appleby has always put me up whenever he can. I had winners for him last year in England and he put me up at Royal Ascot as well and Joe Osborne has always been very kind to have faith in me when I’m riding for Godolphin so I’m very grateful of that support.

I go to Jessie’s a few mornings a week and we couldn’t be happier with the way things are going. With the weather being so bad earlier in the year we weren’t really pushing the two-year-olds that hard so we have some nice types to come later on in the year and just loads to look forward to.

Being in Jessie’s then I also get to go to Mick Halford and John Oxx when they want. I’m very privileged to be riding for Mick Halford who had his 1000th Irish winner the other day and for a man of such high esteem as John Oxx. When you think of the winners that John Oxx has trained and he is such a gentleman to go with it and there is no doubt that he doesn’t have the number of horses that he should have but just to be there to see him working is incredible.

I’m really enjoying things at the moment and even to go into a yard like Jessie’s when I started going in first I have never seen anything like it. The staff just adore her, they really, really do. And everyone then rows in behind it and works hard for the same result.

I’m also lucky to have Warren O’Connor who rides out in Jessie’s and rides a lot of work and he’s a big part of the team and has all the experience of years past and it is great to have someone like him riding work with you.

It is all just a huge team effort and hopefully we’ll have more days like last Sunday in the coming weeks and months