Fergus Gallagher

I'm from Kildare Town right on the Curragh. I was basically into boxing and I won a silver medal in the All-Ireland finals. I was always into fitness. At 14 years of age, I got suspended from school for saying something I shouldn't have to the vice principal. Dad came home early for lunch and told me I was going out to work with him in Kevin Prendergast's while I was suspended. My dad was Travelling Head Man for Kevin for 20-odd years. I would have preferred to be in work than school. A 14-year-old 40 years ago is like a 30-year-old now! I never went back to school and six months later Audrey O'Neill, Slim O'Neill's wife, came into the tack room out in Rossmore and said there's jobs for three guys in New Jersey working for a guy called Joe Imbesi. I put my hand up, 100 per cent, even though I had only been riding for four months. Audrey said to me that my father wasn't going to let me go at 14 in 1985. I got my passport and daddy said he wasn't holding me back as I was no good in school.

In November of 1985 I got up to the airport and on we go to New Jersey. When I got to the airport, I was crying my face off but, when I touched down in JFK, I was a grown man. We flew into JFK and spent a night in Meadowlands. Then the next morning, we went to Joe's farm in New Jersey. It was just breaking in yearlings. At that time, he was one of the biggest players in New Jersey. Once the yearlings were broken, he would shuttle them all across America. After a month in New Jersey, where you could hear the wolves howling at night, I realised it wasn't for me. There was a guy, Niall O'Callaghan, who used to lodge in my parents' house, and he was down in Miami in Hialeah. He was assistant trainer to Tommy Skiffington. I rang up Niall and he said to get on a plane to Miami to stay with him as he had a job for me. Danny Murphy (current trainer in Ireland) and Joe Deegan picked me up from the airport. Danny was actually riding in Hialeah as a jockey. When my visa was running out, everyone was going to Belmont or Saratoga or all over America because Hialeah's carnival was finishing. I flew back to Lambourn and my cousin Dean Gallagher, who works in Aidan O'Brien's now, picked me up from the airport and I worked in Charlie Nelson's in Lambourn for two and a half months and came back home to Ireland for a year or so. I then went up to Malton in the north with Kieren Fallon and worked for Jimmy Fitzgerald for a couple of months.

Then in 1989, Macau was just opening. They closed it down for trotting and it became a Flat racetrack. My brother Mark (jockey) rang me and told me he had got me a job with Dan O'Donnell, another Irishman. Now that was living! I was 18 with a big quiff in my hair and the sun was shining on you 24/7! I picked up Cantonese in a heartbeat because I was so young. You got the ferry from Hong Kong to Macau and I went there as a work rider. There were some 50 expats from England, New Zealand, Australia and Ireland. It was probably the best 11 years of my life in Macau. I was also assistant starter in Macau. Just before the Millennium, I got a call that John Schreck had moved to Hong Kong as chief stipe and Ian Patterson became chief stipe in Macau. Ian called me in and told me John Schreck had a job for me in Hong Kong. There were jobs for five people and I was one of the lucky ones. I was to get on the ferry and go over in a couple of days to meet the stable manager. We were the first expats to arrive. We started at 5am and finished at 8.30am and in that time you probably rode 10-15 horses for any trainer that wanted you - Sha Tin on a Saturday and Sunday, and Happy Valley on Wednesday night. I was the first expat on the starting gates, on the stalls. I was there for 10 years and I have a permit to live there if I want for the rest of my life. I rode Good Ba Ba for two years running, he won consecutive Hong Kong Mile races and was voted Hong Kong Horse of the Year. He came up under the tunnel at Sha Tin and all the press were there. He was bucking like he was in a rodeo, I just knew how to ride him.

After Hong Kong, I went to Japan for three months breaking in yearlings for a friend of mine. Good money and it was one of the most picturesque countries I had ever seen. It was too cold for me, though, and I returned to be Travelling Head Man for Jane Chapple-Hyam in Newmarket for a few months. John Hyde's assistant trainer then rang me to say I had a job in Dubai. A job came up with a guy called Erwan Charpy. I was full-time with Erwan for six and a-half years. I became Head Paddock Steward in Dubai which was a brilliant job.

A friend of mine, Shane Crawford, that I worked with in Macau, owns a farm in New Zealand called Regal Farm. They have the 'ready to run sales' like the Breeze Up Sales. He got me a job with a guy called Stephen Marsh. I got on the plane and went to the ready to run sales. He had some nice animals and I knew plenty of Chinese people because I worked in Hong Kong and Macau. I introduced them to Shane to see the horses. Sure enough, they bought one or two. When I worked for Tony Pike out there as a work rider, I was riding this horse called Not Ideal. I said to Pikey that no horse could beat him in a bit of work. He won his two races and qualified for Hong Kong and he went up to Class 1 in Hong Kong. That's when I started my own Gallagher Bloodstock. I was in New Zealand for seven years and for the last five years I was doing the bloodstock, selling them to Hong Kong.

Since I came home, I was working for John Feane and I have been with Eddie and Patrick Harty for seven or eight months. My father is also working out there as Mick Halford has retired. We go in at 6.30am and take all the temperatures and I ride probably four or five lots. In the afternoon, we change rugs and waters and do over our horses that we rode out. A horse doesn't want for anything there. Patrick and Eddie treat their staff very well.

It is a tough game but, if you like your horses and want to be a jockey or a groom, from what I have seen around Kildare and Ireland since I have been home, it is probably one of the best establishments to be working in. There aren't many people that can say they have been to the places I have been. You can get to experience the world with horses and I certainly have.

Fergus was in conversation with Michael Graham.

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About Michael Graham

Michael has worked in horse racing journalism for more than 15 years, having also written a weekly betting column on Gaelic football and hurling for a newspaper. He is involved in writing the My Racing Story features on this website. He spent a year in South Africa completing a Diploma in Business Administration and also studied Newspaper Journalism in Belfast. He enjoys playing 5-a-side football on a regular basis.

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