J J Slevin

Winning the Irish Grand National probably hasn’t really sunk in yet, I got home last night and looked at the replay with my mother and father and I went to bed then as I’d to be up to go to work in Joseph O’Brien’s this morning so I’d say I’ll watch it a few times again this evening!

Racing was off at Fairyhouse so I stuck around to ride out five lots and it’s back to normal now really. The lads in Joseph’s are great and I got a nice reception in there this morning, there’s a great team down there but I’m still dreaming really.

It is unbelievable as I didn’t even think I’d have a ride in these type of races and I never thought it would happen to me. I was watching Grand National’s as a young lad and I can remember Glebe Lad, Papillon and Bobbyjo and thinking ‘Genie, wouldn’t it be great to even ride in that race’ and I was never stupid enough to think I’d be able to win it so now I can’t really believe it.

Gordon Elliott is a great trainer and Gigginstown are great supporters of Irish racing so just to ride in the race for them was an honour for me. Flashing by the line I thought I’d got up to win and then I looked over at Danny and he thought he’d won so then I didn’t want to allow myself to believe that I’d won just in case so I just kept looking down at my number to make sure I had the right one when the result was called.

General Principle is just a very, very hardy and genuine horse and jumped brilliant. I’m just glad to be riding for those kind of people and Joseph as well and when you are riding for those kind of people you’ve got a chance to ride winners.

My father, Shay, would have always had horses at home so I’ve always been around horses and I just loved working with them and working around the yard here with Daddy, my brother Mark and my mother, Liz. We would have never had a good pony to start with, we would have gone to the marts and bought five or six unbroken ponies and we would have thought them and we learnt to ride on them. Daddy didn’t believe in giving us easy push-button ponies, we were always trying to learn and every chance I got I was out riding.

I did my Leaving Cert and went off to college and got a degree in journalism and really enjoyed that and kept my options open as Daddy would always have said how tough a life it was to be a jockey and how hard it was to make it so I always had that in my mind but I just loved riding and still do.

I spent some time working in Ballydoyle, I was there for the guts of a year or a bit longer and Aidan was very good to let me ride work and talked to me a lot. The standard of rider in Ballydoyle is so high that you are going to stick out like a sore thumb unless you work hard and improve and you don’t want to look bad against them lads so you are trying to work hard to get better and try to fit in down there.

I always liked riding as an amateur and then, thanks to advice from my mother, I took the chance to turn professional. I went to England for a year and worked with Nigel Twiston-Davies but I couldn’t really keep my weight right over there so I came back to Joseph’s then and spent a summer there and started to get the odd winner here and there.

My mother said it to me one night that I should turn professional and I started laughing at her. I said ‘I can’t get a ride as an amateur, how am I going to get a ride as a professional?’ it was madness to me. She kept on to me for a few weeks and kept telling me to give it a chance so when I looked it up and saw I could ride 25 winners as a professional and still turn back amateur I said to myself to give it a try as a 7lbs claimer and turn back if I have to but thankfully things sort of fell right and I suppose it is more evidence that Mammies are never wrong!

I really enjoy working in Joseph’s, it is run on very similar lines to Ballydoyle and I love going in there. Joseph is much more than a boss to me, I’ve grown up with him and get on so well with him that of course you want to see him do very well.

Unfortunately I won’t be able to win the conditional jockeys championship as I have ridden out my claim and Donie McInerney is going to win that and fully deserves it. He’s a bit like me in that he came from riding in point-to-points and I’m delighted for him but to be totally honest I never even thought I’d ride out my claim so being champion conditional is not something I ever really thought about to be honest, that is the reality of it. I never thought I’d get the breaks but I was always trying as hard as I could. I rode as an amateur for eight years and I had damn all winners or luck at it and you’d be banging your head off the wall at times wondering why I wasn’t getting more luck at it and journalism did enter my head because I like writing but I just love being around horses and working with them, schooling them, riding them.

My agent, Ken Whelan does a very good job for me and I’ve got great time for him. Ken was the first man to ring me when he heard I was turning professional and I’ve always had a lot of time for him. I wouldn’t have known him that well then as when I was starting riding he was finishing up but my father always had a lot of respect for Ken and he’s the type of fella who’d always have a word for you and I always like that in somebody so I had no hesitation in getting him to book my rides.

I’m not sure if I’ll be in Aintree but I didn’t have any ride in the Irish Grand National until 11am on Friday so you just never know in this game, if somebody wants me in Aintree I’ll be more than happy to take the chance.