Killian Hennessy

I’m from Youghal and I’ve been working in Ballydoyle for around four and a half years at this stage.

I live ten minutes away in Fethard and it’s a pleasure to go into work. Ballydoyle is an amazing place, everything is top of the range. You’ve got the best-bred horses in the world on the best gallops in the world and of course the riders are all top-class. As well as the jockeys who do most of the race-riding for Aidan O’Brien, there’s the likes of Adrian Maguire, Dean Gallagher, Alan Crowe and Colm O’Donoghue there, all brilliant riders.

I usually ride out four lots a day and the first lot would be the horses who are working. I ride Point Lonsdale quite regularly as well as some of the two-year-olds. In previous years I’ve been on the likes of Luxembourg when he was a two and three-year-old, St Mark's Basilica and Arizona.

When there’s a lot of racing on and the main jockeys are otherwise engaged, Aidan is good enough to give me some nice opportunities as was the case last weekend with Tower Of London in the Ulster Derby. He was always travelling well for me and I was fairly confident from an early stage that he’d take a lot of beating. He’s a horse that’s still improving and should definitely be up to making a mark in Group company. My previous winner was Nobel Prize in the Ballysax Stakes when it was run at Dundalk in the Covid year of 2020. I’m happy to take outside rides if they come my way but by the time I’m finished in Ballydoyle around lunchtime most days, it doesn’t leave me with much of a chance to ride out for other yards.

Going back to my early days with horses I did a lot of showjumping and hunting and I spent a summer in Jim Bolger’s yard while I was still in school. I ended up joining him full-time as an apprentice and I got a great education and learned a lot there. I had my share of success for Jim and then I spent some time race-riding in America where I was initially based with trainer Brendan Walsh. I rode ten winners over there and I rode at the likes of Ellis Park, Indiana Downs and Hawthorne but the lighter weights that have to be carried in American racing got the better of me. Riding work against the clock over there really sharpened up my judgement of pace and that stood to me in terms of getting the job in Ballydoyle. I’m tall enough but I did nine stone the other day to ride one of Aidan’s two-year-olds at Down Royal and I can do that kind of weight if I have to. Sometimes I’d ride work upsides Wayne Lordan and Wayne’s horse would have a lead bag fitted to match my weight.

I spent time with Mick Channon in Britain as well and rode a couple of winners for him but all the travelling to meetings was something I didn’t enjoy at all. One particular day I drove four hours to Thirsk only for racing to be called off due to unsafe ground and then I had another two hour drive to Nottingham for just one ride later the same day. I know it’s better for the lads in Britain now that they can only ride in one meeting a day, but it wasn’t suiting me anyway and I was happy to come home. After linking up with Fozzy Stack for a while, I then moved on to Ballydoyle and I’m very happy to be there at the moment.

I had done a good Leaving Cert and when I was in my mid-twenties I spoke to Helen O’Sullivan in RACE about the possibility of furthering my education. With the backing and financial assistance of HRI, the Jockeys’ Trust and the Irish Injured Jockeys Fund, all of which I'm very appreciative of, I was accepted into the University of Limerick for a degree course in Mechanical Engineering. Aidan O’Brien was very supportive and I was still able to ride one lot a day, or four lots a day, depending on my college commitments. I was one of the few students at the time not disadvantaged by the pandemic, as I was able to do a lot of my college work online and in the evening. I was that bit older than most of the other students on my course and mostly did my own thing, but I made a few friends there when I was able to attend in person once the worst of the pandemic was over.

I did my third-year work placement with Brian Acheson’s company Dornan Engineering and I’m due to graduate in August. I always had an aptitude for maths and problem solving and it’s a very broad degree with a lot of possible routes to follow down the line. It’s great to have it under my belt but I’m keen to continue riding and working in Ballydoyle as it’s a privilege to be involved in an operation like that.