Ross Coakley

Riding out my claim has been a target for so long as it is for every jockey and to hit winner number 95 and get it done on Miss Snossyboots at Dundalk last Friday for my neighbour Michael Halford, who has been such an important supporter of mine, was brilliant.

You have always wanted to get to that point of your career where you are deemed to be professional. It’s the end of a long road but it’s a landmark. I am 24 now. Some lads have ridden through it quicker than I have but at the same time I feel like I am ready now for it. I have a lot of experience.

I have had a lot of help along the way. Johnny Murtagh was a huge influence on my career early on, giving me guidance, opportunities and a platform to progress. Michael Halford and John Oxx have been very supportive of me during the winter season. Riding in the Godolphin and Aga Khan colours is what you dream of as a kid. The connections of Manjeer, who is trained by John, kindly let me retain the ride in the Patton Stakes and I think he is a horse that should progress this season.

Early on, I used to ride out at Pat Martin’s and Ken Condon’s and nowadays I do a morning a week down at Denis Hogan’s.

It’s funny though how the feeling of satisfaction was actually a bit more shortlived than I thought it would be. Racing continues, you are looking forward to next week. All of a sudden you are thinking, ‘I have to prove I am worth being on the same level as the established high standard in Ireland.’ You feel the need to up your game and to keep working and improving.

Of course my father, Denis was very important in helping me to get going and I suppose, in me having an interest at all. He used to ride out when he was in college and rode as an amateur for a while.

He has family in Glenbeigh and we used to spend a lot of summers down there and that’s where horses were introduced to me. I spent one summer working in a trekking stables. That is really where I kind of got the bug for horses. It was a slippery slope from then. When summer is over, you still want to be around horses.

My dad started back riding out for Pat Martin at that time and I used to tag along. Pat let me keep a pony in the yard and I used to ride with the string. By the time I was 12 I was riding the racehorses. Keith Donoghue was there too and Pat gave us a great grounding. He gave us great opportunities at that age. When you get hooked on it at that age, you start dreaming then.

Dad got some ponies for me to go pony racing and brought me everywhere. That went very well and by the time I was 15 and old enough to sign on, I had ridden just short of 11 winners. It is a great platform. You have a full career done nearly in a sense. By the time you reach 16 you have broken bones, you have made money, you have ridden winners, you have done everything. You see the two sides of the game by that stage which is probably a help.

We moved to Kildare from Dublin when I was 14, right beside Michael Halford. I went to work in Halford’s on my summer holidays. When I turned 16 I was mad to sign on. My parents were very much of the opinion that I should stay in school and do the Leaving Cert. So I signed on to Denis Cullen while I was at school and after a year I moved to Ken Condon’s.

He was in Maynooth at the time and when he moved to the Curragh, it made life a lot easier, as I was at school in St Paul’s in Monasterevin and for the first while, I wasn’t driving. So I was depending on my mother, Maria driving me or getting lifts. I used to ride out in Ken’s until 10 or 10.30am and then either get a lift back down or my mother would get me to bring me to school for maybe 11.30am. They were very understanding there — they helped me do the two. Ronan Whelan was in the same school, so were all the Faheys. A lot of racing people have gone through it so they understood.

The winner that probably stands out in my head the most is Mutual Regard on Derby weekend in 2014. I think I was claiming seven at the time and it brought me down to five. That was my first taste of having a good winner on a big day. It was in the Tinkler colours for Johnny. We were looking forward to the Ebor after that. Unfortunately, I got a ban for the stick when riding a winner in Southwell. I missed the ride on the Ebor, and Lewis Steward won on him.

The Cambridgeshire was the most valuable race I won on Elusive Time in 2017 but I always think winning at Derby weekend stands out more. Still, Elusive Time was great of course, especially as it was for a trainer Takashi Kodama, who had only had one winner in the last three seasons and that was the same fella.

Of course riding winners for my dad is great. Boxer Dunford was the first in Dundalk in September 2017 when my father only had a licence a few months having decided at 55 that it was a case of ‘now or never’ if he wanted to fulfil that dream. We got Park Row last year and he’s been great, winning five times in the meantime, including twice this year at nine years of age.

We were only talking about it a couple of weeks ago. The fact was he trained and I rode for the pony races for four or five years and it’s the same. We only have three acres of land and the stables, and a horsebox. He boxes them to the Curragh every morning himself and rides them out. I will ride them a bit of work. When it comes to the races I ride them, he doesn’t get involved in instructions.

With training horses it’s keeping things as simple as possible. And with the older horses, they get a lot of individual attention. We have Munfallet as well, who had one run for us, beaten a head. The stables are overlooking the house and they would be watching the lads kick the football out there. They are out in the field by day, they are getting carrots, every two hours they are been given carrots. The thing for older horses, it’s just that attention they are getting fills them with confidence and the fact that they are out on the field by day too. Our system works well for them.

I am looking forward to what the future holds and will handle it if there are quiet spells because I’ve had them before. But I have a good base with John Oxx and Michael Halford. They have good owners and nice horses. There is myself, Niall McCullagh and Ronan Whelan who are in the two yards. Even though in a way we are competing for rides we are on the same team. We help each other along and we help each other out. You have got to look forward. You keep your head down, you work hard and your opportunities will come.

I am tall and there is always a man with the scales. You see Kevin Manning at 52 and riding at the top of the game and it gives you hope that you can make a sustainable career. Obviously, it’s a harder game mentally and physically when you do have to maintain your weight at a level. Plenty of lads have to do it though and we have good backing with the Jockey Pathway, the nutritionist and all that goes with it. It’s all a help to just try and get us doing things in as safe a way as possible.

You are always looking for marginal gains. It’s like the last two winters I spent in Australia with Gai Waterhouse and John Sadlier. Two years ago I actually looked after Mutual Regard when he went over for the Melbourne Cup.

All these experiences help, riding work to the clock, doing some personal training with Hugh Bowman, Kerrin McEvoy, James McDonald and personal trainer Trent Langlands.

These all add up and I’m ready now to get on with the next phase. It’s exciting.