Meet The Trainees - Stephen O'Hara

My name is Stephen O’ Hara I am 18 years of age and I am from Tallow Co. Waterford but the lads in RACE say that I am from Cork because I have a Cork accent!  I got into race horses about 4 years ago. My first job in a racing yard was for Jimmy Mangan and I learnt loads from working in his yard.  When I got better at riding horses and got fitter I then wanted to get more involved and really get going so I then started riding horses for other people and riding pieces of work to get more experience and improve in my riding skills.

Two years ago I decided to take it a step further so I traveled across to England and I worked for Tom George. I really enjoyed working for him and I learned loads and would love to go back to England some time in the future.  Then last summer I wanted to improve in my style of riding so I decided to go to a flat yard down in West Cork, where I was working for John Joseph Murphy for two months. I really enjoyed working for him and improved in my style of riding and would also love to work for him again.

One of my friends recommended coming to RACE to do a 10 month jockey course so I had a think about and did some research and asked around my local area if anyone had come to RACE in the past and one or two of them did and they also recommended RACE. They said it is a good experience and that I would learn loads and if I thought I was good enough I could go for my Jockey license after the course.

Since I came to RACE I met some really nice people and made some great friends for life and learnt a lot from Barry, Paul and Niall down in the racing barn. They were very good to all of us and thought us a lot about horses, horse care, riding horses, getting a horse ready for racing, transporting horses and loads more.

Ten weeks into the course the first group of trainees were selected to be sent out to trainer’s yards. I was sent out to Sandra Hughes yard the daughter of Dessie Hughes. Since I started working in the yard I felt very welcome by everyone and they were very good to me and taught me some things to tidy me up on a horse and gave me the chance to ride pieces of work and school horses and I do those every week.  RACE was a good decision because they teach you how to ride, present yourself to trainers and owners and how to act in a professional manner.

Stephen (far right) with Chief Instructor Barry Walsh, Trainees and Champion Jockey Davy Russell(center)