Meet The Trainees - Jack Ruddy

My name is Jack Ruddy; I am 17 years old since May. I have grown up in County Meath. I don’t come from a racing background but I got my interest in racing from my granddad. At the weekends, after finishing up the work on the farm, we would go in the house and watch channel 4 racing. When I was ten I got my first pony bobby. I learned how to ride him and did loads of pony lessons. Two years later I got another horse Harry and that’s when I started to compete at showjumping and hunter trials. Harry is a great horse and thankfully I won a few competitions on him. 

When I was younger I did a lot of GAA but at the age of fourteen I lost interest in it and that’s when I got the interest of wanting to become the next A.P. McCoy.

At the age of fifteen I started riding out in Tony Martin’s yard as it is only down the road from me. In Tony’s I learned a lot from the lads riding out such as Paddy McGuigan, Mikey O’ Connor, Alicia Kelly and the Jockeys Donagh Meyler and Shane Shorthall and the main man himself Tony. I learned things like my position and holding the horse on the gallops. 

 I am still working in Tony’s weekends and holidays. I am thankful to Tony for giving me chances from schooling and getting to ride work with the jockeys.

Ever since I started in RACE back in September there was still plenty of room for improvement and thankfully I learned a lot from all the instructors in RACE and a big thanks to Barry Walsh for the amount of stern words he gave me, it helped me in the end.

In November I was sent out to Sandra Hughes on work placement, where I have made really good friends like Nathan Masterson and Shauna Keatley. The early mornings were tough in the dead of winter but as the mornings get brighter and brighter I’m finding them a lot easier.

When I finish here in RACE  I hope to work in Tony’s before I go back to school in September and I hope to get my Amateur License in the future along with plenty of winners to go with it and hope to go professional in the end.

Jack after training on Maddenstown  Gallops