Kevin Brouder

It is unusual for three brothers with no background in racing or horses to end up being jockeys but that is how it is with Gearoid, Gavin and myself.

We are from Listowel and all we had were four of five donkeys in a field. There was a dyke at the end of the field and we would put whatever we had in our pockets, two or three euro, and we’d put it up on a table. The first person to get their donkey over the dyke got the money. They were wild! That was the start of it I suppose.

Tom O’Connor is within walking distance from us and we went there riding out. It was great to win on the likes of Lilshane for Tom after. He was very good to us.

It was Gearoid who got me into the idea of being a jockey. I was more into football. I played with Listowel Emmetts but Gearoid started pony racing and I loved it. I went to England for a while where I rode for Jonjo O’Neill but I came back home in 2017. I rode my first winner soon after that and it took off from there. Tom Cooper was very good to me that time too.

I’m based in Askeaton now and ride for a lot of smaller trainers around. The link with Charles Byrnes has been the most fruitful, with 10 of my 32 winners this season coming from him as well as my first graded winner. He has stuck by me when there’s plenty of other good people in the weigh room.

The other winners have come from 16 different trainers, most of which are local to me and that has gotten me where I am now.

I also have a few horses myself with my girlfriend Niamh, pre-training, buying some young horses and a bit of everything. The hunting trade is good so we work a bit in that too.

It is great to ride a winner at Listowel too and I had a great time there this year, with three winners and plenty more placed horses. Turnpike Trip won on the Saturday for Charles and we went on to combine for my first graded victory, the Grade 3 Joe Mac Novice Hurdle in Tipperary. He was fourth in the Royal Bond after, and on heavy ground in a Grade 3 handicap hurdle at Ascot last weekend and has been excellent for us.

I rode my first ever winner in Listowel, Masons Daughter for Philip O’Connor, so the local track has been very lucky for me. This year it was brilliant, my family and friends were there on Sunday when I won on Miss Mcilroy for Gerry Lynch. She was 33/1 at one stage and they all backed her, small bets, fivers and two euro, but we knocked great craic out of it. I was delighted for them as much as myself. We went out that night then and had a good old laugh.

The one negative is that I have been out a good bit with my wrist. I was coming back too early, like for Listowel and though that worked out well, I got another bang, not even from a fall but jumping a fence and it went again.

Then I displaced two more vertebra in my back at Punchestown in October. I had broken my back last year and that was bad, five or six vertebra damaged that time so with two new fresh ones, you had to take all the precautions. That kept me out for a month.

I’ve actually missed a good bit this season but it’s going well now and the claim is nearly ridden out. To do that with all smaller trainers is nice too, I get a kick out of that, especially as most of them are local.

I switched agents this year from Ruaidhri Tierney to Ken Whelan and Ken set up a link with Tom Mullins, which is great. I won on Lucky Icon for him in Killarney and hopefully there might be some more opportunities there. Tom has been good by me. Certainly things took off since I went with Ken.

Christmas provides a lot of opportunities and hopefully I’ll be busy enough. A lot of the people I ride for have horses running at the three meetings. For example there are some nice horses in Leopardstown on Friday but Charles Byrnes has Alpine Cobra in the Grade 2 Lyons of Limerick Jaguar Land Rover Novice Hurdle. I am riding all Barry Connell’s now too so I will have to have a chat with him and see what his plans are.

Barry sold most of his stock and kept just a handful of the older horses. He’s a lot of young horses now including Watergate Lady, a mare he bought that was second in two bumpers, including one where she pulled 35 lengths clear of the field with one of Willie Mullins’, Asterion Forlonge at Thurles in November. She is in the Leopardstown bumper on Friday. He’s got the right horses, is moving into a new yard and there’s a lot to look forward to. He’s going to get his own licence to train and have a go at it.

It’s hard when there’s so much racing to keep everyone happy. I suppose it is a good thing that people want you and a sign of how well things have been going. Hopefully it will continue.