Thomas Sherry

To get my first winner on the board at Dundalk last month was really a relief more than anything. I’d be looking at the other 10lbs claimers riding winners and it is very competitive out there but you get the winner and it just gives you something more to look forward to.

This year got off to a bit of a slow start for me as I broke my leg in January and missed a good bit of the grafting in the early part of the year and that is where you earn the right to ride some of these horses but now that I’ve got my first winner I just want to get another one and next year the first aim will be to get down to being a 7lbs claimer.

My boss, Michael O’Callaghan, has been very good to me. I’ve had the majority of my rides for him and I couldn't be happier. We are busy at the moment, we’d have a few yearlings in and getting horses ready for next season so I’d have about 10 lots in the mornings but I love it. It is a long way from driving a horse and cart from the Guinness factory in town!

I’m from Smithfield in Dublin and my first dealing with horses would have been looking out the window at the cobs and then when I was about 11 I started driving a horse and cart and picking up tourists at the Guinness factory and dropping them in to Temple Bar to make a few quid to keep me ticking over.

I would have always looked at racing and had an interest and would have been thinking I’d love to be a jump jockey and it was my father than planted the seed about me going to RACE. I didn't know anything about racing really though, I didn't understand the weights or anything like that, so when I went to RACE I learned all that and sat on a racehorse for the first time. I suppose it didn't take me long to figure out being a flat jockey is probably a better way to go!

I started off in Michael Halford’s and I did learn an awful lot there but there were a lot of other jockeys there and it’s hard to stand out when there’s so many other lads there so then I moved to Michael’s (O'Callaghan). I spent a month over with Jonjo O’Neill just to go somewhere different and try learn a few things there. You always want to be moving forward and trying to learn in this game.

You’d be happy with the way things are going but you always want more. I used to say to myself ‘It would be great to get my first winner’ but as soon as that happens you just want more and you kinda get greedy.

Johnny Murtagh is a jockey I’d have looked up. He has a bit of similar background to me in that he didn’t come from any sort of racing background. He did a bit of boxing, I did a bit of boxing, we both went to RACE without ever sitting in a saddle and I’d have looked up to him a lot growing up but now you just have to look at what Colin Keane did this year is unbelievable. Everything about Colin you'd have to look up to him.

The aim is to get down to 7lbs and hopefully get a lot more rides next year. Last year was my first full season riding and I was hoping I would have picked up more rides than I did but I missed the early part of the year and I’m just gone 19 and only sat on a horse for the first time three years ago so if I can get off to a good start next year I hope I should be OK.

I’ll never forget where I come from but I don’t look back, all I can think of now is to keep the ball rolling and get more winners. I’ll work hard through the winter and be hoping for a decent year next year.