Killian Leonard I think it is fair to say that things couldn’t be going much better at the moment. Thankfully I’m getting plenty of rides and plenty of winners as well and I feel that I’m getting stronger. Every year since I’ve started riding I’ve been getting more rides so that is a plus. I think the majority of my winners this year have been for Denis Hogan and Pat Martin but I’ve got a widespread group of trainers that are willing to use me and supply me with winners and plenty of rides and that is key to getting on over here. I’m lucky enough that I can do light weights and that helps trainers support me. Midway through the season I started riding out for Denis Hogan and he has supported me well and I think that will probably be a base for me for a while. Denis is a very good trainer, he knows the time of day and is only waiting for a good horse to move on to the next level. My seasons always seem to start well, then I have a quiet spell in the middle and finish well and that is sort of the way this season has gone again but we are back now and it’s nice to be in the mix for the apprentice championship. Hopefully I can have a good end to the season but I really enjoy being in the mix. I loved it last year when I was battling it out with Oisin Orr and it went all the way down to the final day of the season. It’s starting to get exciting again with Ben Coen and Shane Crosse there and we have some good craic with it. I don’t really plan anything far in advance but if we were still to be battling it out coming into the last two weeks of the season it would be very exciting. I’m just happy to be in the position I’m in with a 3lbs claim as Ben and Shane both have 7lbs claim and are very talented riders with good support behind them. Ben came along this year and stole all my rides from Andy Slattery and now he’s trying to beat me in the apprentice championship as well! Maybe I should have a word! Joking aside though, Andy was very good to me when I started out and I am very grateful to him for that. The biggest winner of my career was when I won the Rockingham at the Curragh on Sors for Andy and that was a day I won’t forget. But there’s certainly no hard feelings. The two lads are great value for their claim and will be very hard to beat but I’ll do the best that I can and I won’t lie down until the last day of the season anyway. There is certainly no jealousy between us and we are all good friends and it’s a fair battle. A real positive for me is that I have been supported as much now with just a 3lbs claim as I was with my 10lbs, 7lbs or 5lbs claim and that is obviously a good sign. It shows that people have faith that I have learned a lot and they’re still willing to use me. It’s a huge boost to the confidence. I sort of broke the mould becoming a flat jockey, I suppose. I grew up in Cork and it was really more National Hunt country although there was no racing in our house at all really. My father was a silage contractor and I was more into tractors than horses growing up. When I was 10 or 11 I got a pony and it took off from there really. I started hunting and then pony racing. I was always a little bit heavier than I am now so I didn’t really know what I wanted to do up until I was 13 or 14. I got on well in my last couple of seasons pony racing and I decided I’d take out my apprentice licence then. I did a half a season in 2015 and I was with Ger Lyons for a summer and he asked me was I going back to school and I said I was and we both agreed that it was the best thing to do as I was going into sixth year. Ger made sure that I was going back to school and I was grateful to him for that. I never really thought about leaving school early. I always wanted to finish it, even though I didn’t really enjoy it, I was always going to stick it out. I had a great time in Ger’s and was able to learn a lot from him and riding work with the likes of Colin Keane and Gary Carroll. I definitely benefited from my experience there. I’ve always loved horses and I’m glad that its the road I took. The main focus at the moment is to keep building up contacts with as many different trainers as I can and try to ride as many winners as I can before the end of the season. I’m going to stay in Ireland until January and then in the new year I’m going to go to Brendan Walsh in Florida and spend a month or six weeks there. That will be a great experience. I think I’m mature enough now and at the right age to get away and learn a bit more out there. I’m really enjoying the season so far and am very thankful to all the trainers that have supported me and put me in the position I’m in and if I could cap that off by being champion apprentice it would be fantastic but we’ll just keep working hard anyway.
