Robert Power Unfortunately I didn’t get to see much of New York City last weekend but I was the first to see the winning post in the American Grand National so that was enough! I was never going to turn down the opportunity to go over and ride in such a lucrative race for Gordon on a horse like Jury Duty so it was great to get the chance and even better that it all worked out. I went to school with all the owners and know them very well and it was a very poignant success as one of the syndicate members, Ciaran Collins, passed away in November two days after Jury Duty won at Punchestown. This was the first time the horse won a race since and he picked a good race to win. He is a horse that has been keeping good company all the way through in Grade 1’s and Grade 2’s and he ran a good race in the Galway Plate off a big weight and I was confident that he could reverse the form with Clarcam off level weights. We had to survive a Stewards Enquiry after the race but thankfully there was no major drama there. I did get a little worried though! I didn’t feel or hear any interference but in America they have different rules so I was a little concerned for a while after the race but thankfully there was nothing in it and the horse won well anyway. A horse like Jury Duty is a prime example that you don’t need to spend massive money to find a good horse. Kilbricken Storm won at the Cheltenham Festival last year for Colin Tizzard and he cost just over €20,000 and Jury Duty was the same so you don’t always have to go to the sales and spend €250,000 to come across a good horse. The right horse in the right yard will win races. In Jessie’s I hope we have a lot of right horses! Sizing John is back and he feels fantastic and Supasundae is gearing up too. They are the two main older horses in Jessie’s and they’ll start off in mid November if the rain ever comes, but then we’ve also got a real nice bunch of novices there like Press Conference, Envious Editor and Sizing Pottsie to name but a few. We lost Sizing John to injury at Christmas really. He never really came back to himself after the Lexus and then later in the season we lost Our Duke which was really tough on the yard. At least we knew we would get Sizing John back after a break but to lose a horse like Our Duke was a big blow. Supasundae got us out of a hole and won two big Grade 1 races so that was a nice way to finish the season. You need to have strength in depth in the yard and luckily enough we seem to have that in Jessie’s at the moment. Jessie is a remarkable woman and I don’t think there is any doubt that she’s getting younger not older! Last season was a fantastic season and if you could match that again it would be brilliant. Sizing John missed the business end but he still won a Grade 1, Supasundae won two Grade 1’s and I got a Grade 1 at Aintree on Finian’s Oscar. To top it all off at the end of the season I got a Grade 1 for Willie Mullins at the Punchestown Festival which was special. It was the old saying, one man’s loss is another man’s gain and a few of Willie’s jockeys were out injured last season and I was lucky enough to pick up some nice spares during the season and get some nice winners. The Grade 1 at Punchestown was a great spare ride to get and a lovely bonus. I missed a period of time in the summer to get an old shoulder injury fixed but we are raring to go for the winter now and just waiting for the rain. When the opportunity arises I will go to England and ride for the Tizzard’s, they have a lovely team of horses for the winter. Lostintranslation and Vision Des Flos are two horses that spring to mind most but they’ve some really nice novice chasers that could be anything. If you are riding good horses you don’t mind travelling… You might even end up in America!
