Hello, my name is Alicia fox. I’m 17 years old and I’m
from Charleville in Co. Cork. I grew up loving horses. I first got into horses
when I was 8 and started going to a riding school. I got my first horse when I
was 16. I did a bit of show jumping and
when I turned 16 I started riding out for a local trainer Michael Winters in
Kanturk.
I always had an interest in racing from an early
age. I used to always watch racing on
the tv and since then I have looked up to Joseph O Brien and Jody McGarvey. I
knew I wanted to be a jockey around the age of 14 but I thought I was too young
to ride out for a trainer, so I always used to throw my stirrups up on the ponies
and take off around the fields. Straight away when I turned 16, I rang Michael
winters and he took me on. Michael was
very good to me, he put me on horses that taught me a lot. He let me ride out
with the jockeys that came in such as Donal McInerney and Brian Hayes. I used
to watch the way they rode and if I was then riding the horse that they were on
I would try do what they did. My
favourite horse that I rode out every day at Micks was a mare by Cloudings called
Model Cloud. Model taught me a lot and
luckily, I was at the races in Tramore with her, when she won her first race on
the track. It was Models first win and
my first winner to lead up. That is definitely one day that I will never
forget!
We are currently on week 16 here in race and I am
loving it. I am in a very lucky position
to have gotten past my trial and to get on the course. I am very grateful to be
here. My favourite horse in the barn is
Sugar Sugar. Unfortunately, my first
fall at RACE was off Sugar in a jumping competition before Christmas. When you fall off, the lads tell you to bring
biscuits down to the barn, so I wasn’t happy about that.
I am in the yellow dorm with Patricia, Sarah, Niamh,
Sophia and Roisin. We get on really well
together, which is great when you’re living together. Every month there is a list for cleaning
duties in each house. It’s not our
favourite thing but we all help each other to get them done. Thankfully, we are all very close and I feel
blessed to have these girls to talk to about everything.
At the start of February, I was sent out to Willie
McCreery’s yard. Mr. McCreery is very
good to work for and everyone is very nice in the yard, they always help me out
in every way possible. I get up at 5:30am and go for breakfast before getting
the 6:15am bus out to the yard. We start
at 7:00am but I usually get to the yard at 6:30am, so I do the water buckets
while waiting for the others to come in.
There are eleven of us riding out.
Usually I have 6 lots where we go to the Fox Covert gallop on The Curragh
or up the straight. Sometimes for our last
lot we ride the 2-year olds or horses just back in work in the indoor
gallop. The indoor gallop is really cool
to ride in. There’re two walkers, one
for colts and one for fillies.
I usually finish work around 12:30/12:45. When I n get
back from work I go up for lunch and back up to the dorm and meet the girls to
see how their morning went. At 2:15pm we
all head over to school until 5:15pm.
After school we go straight to tea and head up to our dorms to relax
before P.E. At 7:15pm after P.E., we head back to our dorms and chill out for a
while before heading to bed. The days at
RACE can be very long at times, but everyone here makes the long days easier.
Our day supervisor Dominic is very good to us and he is not really like our
boss he is like our friend!
I really love it here at RACE, and I hope to take out
my conditional licence in the future.
Alicia was placed with Willie McCreery on the 11th of February
2019
 |
| On Maddenstown Gallops |
