Killian McCarthy

Saturday at Gowran Park was the realisation of a very long term goal for me. After over 10 years of trying, over €40,000 raised for various charities, and a few sacrifices along the way, I managed to live the experience of what it is like to ride a winner on the track in leg two of the 2017 Corinthian Challenge. It didn’t disappoint.

In 2005 I led in a winner at the Cheltenham Festival - Dabiroun for Paul Nolan in the Fred Winter - and ever since then I just wanted to ride in a race and get that buzz and that Cheltenham Festival probably has a lot to answer for!

I knew the Nolan’s from home, they would be based only a short distance from my mother’s home place and although I was working for a software company in Cork, I would ride out there on the weekends. It was just a hobby, but it is an addictive one.

That’s how I came to lead up Dabiroun and it was at that Cheltenham Festival I was to meet my future, wife, Jennifer Walsh, and I suppose over the next 12-months or so, the Nolan’s and Ted Walsh were very good to me in helping me get to the Kidney Research Charity Race at Punchestown and I was fifth on Atlantic Rhapsody for Ted in 2006.

I went on a bit of a sabbatical then after riding in the Punchestown Charity Race three years in a row but then in 2011 when the Cheltenham Charity Race came about, I obviously fancied giving that a go and that was an incredible experience but still the search for a winner went on.

Punchestown is the race that everybody says you should ride in and one day, my eldest daughter, Lucy, said to me, “Daddy, I never saw you ride in a race,” and her birthday was falling during Punchestown that year so I said I’d go back and give Punchestown another go for that.

Last year was the first year of the Corinthian Challenge and getting the chance to ride at three of Ireland’s best racecourses was something that I couldn’t turn down so I signed myself up again.

To be honest though, as much as I would have liked to have ridden a winner before now, the fact that it happened last Saturday in front of my two little girls, Lucy and Emily, made it all the more special. Obviously I got a massive kick out of it, but to see their faces and the enjoyment they got from seeing me in a race and then to win it, was fantastic and that made last Saturday very special.

I think my wife, Jennifer, was fairly pleased as well because she knows now I can relax a little bit! To ride in these races there is a certain level of commitment and dedication and with work I would do a lot of overseas travelling so you have to be disciplined to keep your weight down and stay fit, no different to any other jockey, so there’s a lot goes into it and it’s nice to have the ultimate achievement at the end and return to the winners enclosure.

Being in a racing family and around racing for so long, I appreciate the importance of these charity races on so many levels. Obviously when you compete in such a scenario there is a competitive instinct that takes over and you want that thrill of passing the post in front. For anyone who rides in the charity races it is about getting an insight into the sport that few are lucky enough to see and these are our Gold Cup’s. But to be apart of something that is going to raise over €100,000 for the Irish Injured Jockeys gives the greatest sense of satisfaction.

We all see the high profile jockeys that get injured and that need the assistance of the Irish Injured Jockeys, but what we don’t all see, yet it is just as important, is the lesser known cases where people need some support and that was one of the reasons that drove me back to keep going.

I have been very fortunate to be supported by the Nolan’s and the Walsh’s and most recently, by Gordon Elliott in terms of giving me horses to ride in the races, but also by the people that have continued to sponsor me and especially this year, SoftCo, the company I work for, and without all that support and the help that jockeys receive, racing wouldn’t be the same.

The last leg of the Corinthian Challenge is at Leopardstown next month so we’ll look forward to that again and there will be more money raised between now and then. Gordon Elliott and his owners were very good to let me ride Water Sprite last weekend and I’m very appreciate of that, as are all the jockeys who are given horses for these races. Gordon ran four again on Saturday and without him these races probably wouldn't go ahead and that would leave a huge void for everybody so we can’t thank these people enough.

I’ve watched Ruby return to the winners enclosure many times at Cheltenham and on big occasions but to see Nina and Katie do it at Cheltenham for the first time and for them to live a dream that they never thought would happen certainly fuelled the fire for me, albeit on a different scale. There was many times I thought it was never going to happen but it was a day I’ll never forget and hopefully my kids won’t either.