Meet the trainees - Ronan Short

Hi my name is Ronan Short. I am 16 years old and am from Newtown Mt Kennedy Co. Wicklow.

My interest in horses started when I was 11 years old and I started doing lessons in a riding school on the weekends.  After a few years of lessons we got a couple of Ponies for ourselves and began hunting and showjumping.  I only became interested in racing when I began riding out for a friend of my dads who used to be a jockey and kept a few point to pointers in his livery yard.  I heard about RACE a couple of years ago and have been interested in coming here since. I got a trial week which was hard work but when I heard the news I got accepted I was delighted.  We are in our eleventh week now and the first group of trainees should be going out soon on workplacement.

Ronan training on RACE Gallops

Meet a few trainees - their story so far

We hope that you enjoy this short video showing four RACE Trainees as they tell their story of experiences of the course so far.

Thanks to Thomas Allen, Darryl Murphy, Patrick Murray and Barry Reynolds for taking part in videoing and giving up their free time to do so.

Meet the trainees - Robert Smithers

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My name is Robert Smithers I am 16 years old I am from Athy co kildare. 
My interest in horses began when I was about 9 or 10 when Paddy Crane came to ride out for my granddad he was stuck one day and needed someone to ride out a horse for him.  It was a small 132 pony racer. I had to ride him down the road to the gallops. I did not ride him around the gallops but when I got back to my yard Paddy said to me I would make a good jockey. He said to me I should go to RACE. I asked him about it and he said to me he would show me how to ride proper. 
It took about 2 weeks before I got the hang of it and when I did he showed me how to ride on a gallop and stand up and look like a jockey.

     After a while I got my own horse a 14 2 cob. I went hunting with him for a year. After the hunting season was over I sold him and got a pony racer. I went pony racing / flapping for about 12 races on her.  I had about three 2^nd places and was placed a good few times  in 2013.

I had 4 flappers up in my yard, I didn’t get to race them because I didn’t have time but I rode them out on Maurice Phelan’s gallops. 
That is how I found out about races and learned how to ride horse. 

Robert riding upsides -  Maddenstown

 

Meet the trainees - Nicola Nolan

My name is Nicola Nolan.  I am 17.  I never had any knowledge of the horse racing industry or in anything else to do with horses until about 8 months before I came to race.  I had never sat up on a horse until I was 16.

I got into the horses because of work experience when I was in 5^th year. I went to a sports shop and I knew it just wasn’t for me, being indoors all the time, so for the second week of the work experience I decided that I would not be continuing in the shop. I had to pick somewhere else to go on work experience and I didn’t know what I wanted to do so after thinking for a long time my sister came up with an idea for somewhere for me to go on work experience. With her love for horses she said ‘why don’t I go to a racing yard?’.

After thinking of the racing yard idea, I thought I would have no hope with horses because I would never even look at a horse because I was afraid of them, but after a long time thinking of a place I said I would give the horses a go.

I first started in Ciaran cotters small racing yard and Trescon stud, even then when I was in there I was just mucking out, I wasn’t put up on a horse but I was very happy working with the horses and knew after working in the yard and after getting the experience. I knew I wanted a career in the racing industry.

I knew about RACE and thought about applying for it but I had another year to do in school. I talked to my mum about applying for the course and after a lot of convincing I got her to let me apply for it. After applying I got the trial, I gave it a go and hoped for the best, that I would get in. After a long wait after the trials I got my letter to say I got in. I had to do a lot of convincing with my mum to let me leave school but she finally let me go do the course with all of her support behind me.

 Just a few months ago I never thought that I would be where I am now.

Training on the Curragh Plains

Meet the trainees - Mark Mooney

My name is Mark Mooney and I’m from Tralee, Co Kerry. I have always had a big interest in horses since I was the age of 8. I learned to ride in a riding school which was great fun and used to compete in local show jumping events and hunting on the weekends which I used to love.   

After a couple of years of show jumping and hunting I formed a massive interest in racing. When I heard about the Racing Academy from a past student I knew I wanted to come here.    

Leading up to the trial of RACE, I asked a local trainer from some experience in the racing industry.  From there I gained a bit of experience in the industry and ended up getting my place in RACE.   

In the weeks I’ve been here so far I’ve learned loads and I can’t wait for the next 30 weeks to come.  

Mark training on Maddenstown Gallops