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)

Meet The Trainees - Cian Walsh

My name is Cian Walsh. I’m from Co. Kildare and I turned 16 in October 2015. I came to RACE because I wanted to be a Jockey. I started riding when I was five in an equestrian school, doing lessons with my brother and I just got more interested in horses. I did a lot of show jumping all over the country on ponies and then went onto horses, it was great fun! As I got older I got interested in horse racing and really liked it because there are such good horses to be seen racing on TV. Getting to see them in real life you think, it’s great! For example, seeing Sea the Stars on TV and then getting to see him at a racecourse is great.
To get into RACE I had to do a week trial which tested my fitness, how I get on with others and my riding abilities. It was a very hard week that nearly pushed me to the limit. I had to wait a few weeks to hear from RACE and when I did I was very happy to hear that I had gotten accepted into the academy and that I started at the beginning of September. It was hard at first being in a dorm with 4-5 people that you didn’t know but once we started doing activities it’s been very good ‘craic’ and I’ve made a good few friends out of the course.
I have really improved as a rider since the start of the course thanks to the instructors and I have really matured in the year. RACE are good in some ways because if you don’t put in the work you’re not going to get anywhere and if you want to put in the work you’ll succeed as a Jockey or anything else you put your mind to. I hope that I will get a good job working for a top trainer and hopefully be successful.
I commenced work placement at Dermot Weld’s yard in January and it has been a very good experience.

Cian warming up on Curling Bird for Stall Training in January 2016