Meet the trainees - Shane Mulcahy

My name is Shane Mulcahy, I am 16 years old since September. I have grown up on the outskirts of Tipperary town.  I don’t come from a racing background but I have a cousin, Jerry O Dwyer, who came through RACE in 1998.  
I played a lot of hurling and football for my local club but I have been riding ponies at home from a very young age.  I always watched racing on TV and went to any point to points and race meeting that were on locally.  At a younger age I had a greater interest in GAA but about 4 years ago I lost interest in it and got the ‘notion’ of wanting to be a jockey.

I started riding in Seamus O' Donnnel's yard outside Tipperary Town where I began to pick up plenty of experience along the way, Many people in the racing industry told me that “riding racehorses is just like a bug, once you start you don’t get rid of it very easily”, I rode out for Seamus for the bones of a year and then went to ride hunters and sport horses for Pat Ryan, father of Michael Ryan the International Eventer for the summer.  The following December I started riding out for Con Marnane of Bansha House Stables where I dramatically improved my riding with the help of other riders in the yard especially John Halligan. 

I have gotten a lot of opportunities from Con including riding work in the yard going to breeze up sales in Newmarket and riding around Dundalk and Tipperary Racecourses a few times and I also spent the summer riding out in Maisons Lafitte France.  I still ride out for Con on Saturday mornings and any holidays I have from RACE. 

Since I started RACE in September I had still plenty room for improvement and thankfully I have improved my riding with the great help of all the riding instructors here in RACE. I have been told by many people in the Racing Industry that “there is always room for improvement when it comes to riding racehorses”. 

I was sent to Conor O’ Dwyer’s yard on work placement where I am well settled in now at this stage. The early mornings don’t bother me as I love working with horses and it is a pleasure going into the yard every morning.  There are very nice people working in Conor’s and there are a lot of nice horses there too. 

My parents give me great support and will help me in any way they can by carting me here and there and as my father always says to me when I ask him for a lift to work early in the morning “If I have to take you to the moon I will” and I am very thankful for that.   

In the future I would love to get out a licence and get as many rides as I possibly can and maybe one day I could become professional with the help of god.

Shane schooling at RACE

Shane schooling upsides