Philip Donovan

I'm from Moneygall on the Offaly/Tipperary border. My association with horses started with my father. We always had National Hunt mares and foals around the place as kids. Dad was always breaking horses, getting a mare covered or getting foals ready for sales. When we were old enough to look after our own, we got a pony. There was always a horse in the place. I was pretty much born to the game. I always wanted to be a jockey, but I never thought about it, I just went with the flow. I started off with Charlie Swan when he was just down the road from us. The I took it a bit more seriously and I ended up going to Race (Racing Academy and Centre of Education) in Kildare and that's where it all really started. When I finished in Race, I served my apprenticeship with Paul Deegan. I rode my first winner on Srucahan in Cork in October 2012 for Paul. It was good although I probably didn't have a clue what was going on at the time! I think Paul told me not to get there too soon, and I was in front two furlongs from the winning post! I was 17, nearly 18, and old enough when I started race riding. A lot of the lads that were around me in the apprentice school were 16 when they came out of it. I'm nearly sure Pat Malone weighed me out for that first winner and then he weighed me out for Saunton Surf who I rode my claim out on in Downpatrick last week. By the looks of it, only for Pat I wouldn't be doing any of it!

I learned a helluva lot in Paul Deegan's. When I went to Paul, I was seriously green. I knew how to ride a horse, but I knew nothing about riding work. Being an apprentice on the Curragh was probably the biggest change to me. I was probably used to having a pair of tracksuit bottoms and a pair of rubber boots that were too small for my cousins. Whereas, in the Curragh you had to have leather boots and you had to look the part. If you wanted to be a jockey, you had to look like one up there. If you didn't, you kind of stuck out. Paul taught me a lot about conducting myself well and being professional. It wasn't easy, but it was a fair grounding and I learned a lot off him. I did my three years there. In the last year of my apprenticeship, I got a bad fall on the Curragh one morning when working for Tracey Collins and I did a good bit of damage to my neck. I didn't spend long with Paul after that, but I served my apprenticeship with him.

I had five winners in Ireland before I went to Britain in 2016. Everyone else was going and I didn't see an avenue in Ireland. I had a short spell with Fergal O'Brien and I went to Neil Mulholland after that. Most of my time over there was with Neil. I really enjoyed Neil's and rode 15/16 winners over there for him. Neil is a good operator. I was there for the three years and I tipped away for a while, but I never really got going in England. Maybe it was that I didn't enjoy it as much over there. You kind of have to be dedicated to driving in England rather than riding horses. It was in the back of my mind to come home. I was going racing and riding horses, but I wasn't getting anything out of it. I was making no career out of it in England. I never really settled there. I did enjoy Neil's, though, and towards the end of it, any opportunity I got to drive a tractor over there I went and did that! I wasn't that busy racing, so I was maybe looking for a different avenue.

I came home during Covid-19 in 2020. I got in touch with Michael Halford and told him my story and that I was home for covid. He said, 'no problem' and for as long as covid and the restrictions lasted until racing got going, I was riding out for Michael. To be honest, I think it was the saving of me. I kind of found a bit of a grá for it and I enjoyed getting up in the mornings to ride nice horses - good Flat horses. It kind of put a bit of hunger back in me. There was nothing more for me in England, so I said I would give this two years and see what happens. I had never really given it a big kick in Ireland. I had on the Flat, but I didn't know what I was doing back then. My first winner since returning to Ireland came on Joeswayornoway in a handicap hurdle at Clonmel in Match 2021 for Dusty Sheehy. I was freelancing and I was going here, there, and everywhere. If there were horses to be ridden in Cork and Galway on the same day, I tried to fit them all in. I said if I was going to do it, I was going to do it properly. I did a lot of driving in those couple of years. I was with John Ryan for a bit, and I did a couple of mornings every week with Edward O'Grady. Pat Kelly in Galway was very, very good to me when I came back. Anywhere I could get, I would go - whether it be a trainer's yard, a schooling ground or a schooling bumper.

Kiltealy Park's short head win in a Listed mares' handicap chase at Fairyhouse in April last year was a good winner and I actually had my first double that day. The horse (Locked Box) I won the maiden hurdle on at Fairyhouse was for Cormac Farrell and I'd say Cormac has been brilliant to me since I came back. I was delighted to ride him a nice winner. I also won the Listed Tim Duggan in Limerick over Christmas 2024, and he was impressive that day. They were the days you would like to be going racing for. I have sat on quite a few good horses. I rode Zanahiyr a good bit when he was in Michael Halford's. He was only a three-year-old then. Neil Mulholland had The Druids Nephew and Shantou Village who were good horses. Since I have been working for Andy Slattery, he has had numerous good horses, and I've ridden Fleur In The Park at home.

I'm riding out five mornings a week in Slattery's for the summer. It is a very, very good yard. From what I can see, there is no stone left unturned and the lads are very fair. Realistically, I wouldn't be riding where I am now without Andy and William Slattery. I was lucky enough three or four years ago to start schooling for them and then I started going in a day a week when Cian Quirke got hurt. William would always say to me that if you are riding out good horses in the morning, it will help you ride horses in the afternoon. They have no shortage of good horses. If I was starting again, I probably would never have looked any further than them, to be honest. There are jump jockeys there, Flat jockeys, and apprentices, and they give everybody a fair crack of the whip. You don't have to be the best rider in the world but, if you show you are willing to learn, they will give you an opportunity. There's nobody fairer than the Slatterys and they don't do the 'oh the owner says he wants this jockey'. They are very, very fair. It makes you go the extra mile for them if you know they would do it for you.

I am proud of riding out my claim on Saunton Surf at Downpatrick last week. As I said to someone recently, I came back from England with a 7lb claim and not many lads manage to do that, but I did. It has taken me five years to ride the claim out as I was never attached to a yard. The part I'm quite proud of is that I said I'd come back and give it a kick, and it has worked. We'll see where it goes from now. Maybe it suited me having that bit of hunger there as I didn't know where tomorrow was going to take me or where I might be going tomorrow. I quite enjoyed that, the idea of not knowing where I was going to be in two day's time. I sat down and made a plan about what I was going to do the next day to keep the fight going. During the winter, I would still make a plan, maybe a week in advance in terms of going to a certain trainer on Monday and another on Tuesday. The only day that I would have set in stone during the winter is Friday where I'm in Slattery's. I don't go anywhere else then. Any other day I can make a plan to go wherever I want.

My daughter gets me out of bed. Money also definitely gets me out of bed, and I'd be a fool if I said different! That's what gets us all out of the bed. I get myself a week's wage first and then the rides will follow. As long as you have a week's wage in your pocket, there's not a whole lot wrong. There are a helluva lot of good horsemen in every corner of this country. As I always say, there's two types of people in the world, there are horse lovers and horsemen. I'm aiming to be a horseman - whether I am, or I'm not, that's what I aspire to be.

Philip 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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