Jack Kearney

I'm 17 and joined Ger Lyons last August as stable apprentice. They look after me very well and it's very exciting to be involved in such a top yard.

I'm coming into the last few months of school before my Leaving Cert in June and obviously I'm itching to crack on full-time with my riding career but it's no harm to finish my education. We used to live in Navan and moved ten miles out the road to Castletown a few years ago.

I still go to school in Navan, at St Patrick's Classical School, and the headmaster up until last Christmas was Colm O'Rourke who has always been a great racing man. It has never been a problem to get a half-day or leave school a bit early to get up the road for a meeting at Dundalk or wherever racing is on that day. The lads in school are happy that things are going well for me. There's not that many of them who would follow racing closely but that doesn't stop them asking me for tips all the same!

I don't have a chance to ride out in the mornings when I'm in school but I go to Liam McAteer's yard after school. Liam is based near me and has three breezers at the moment so I give them a spin in the afternoons.

My father Ian was on the Meath team in the late eighties/early nineties and won a couple of Leinster titles with them. He's always been a huge fan of racing and rode himself in the Corinthian Challenge series back in 2018. I played under-age football myself for Castletown GAA Club and up until third year for the school team. I was handy enough but it's hard to find the time to combine football with racing, so I had to let the football go at some point.

I started off on ponies at a young age and, when we were living in Navan, Pat Martin's was the first racing yard I went to from the age of ten. Pat brought me through gradually and I was riding racehorses from around eleven. I was delighted to ride a winner for Pat at Dundalk last month when Indiana Grey did the business.

Once we moved to Castletown I started riding out for Noel Meade who is based there and he was a big help to me as well. I rode some of the jumpers there but mainly Noel's Flat horses. I also did a couple of seasons of pony-racing as well and got one winner on the board in that. My time in pony-racing was restricted by Covid which meant a lot of the meetings were cancelled at that time but the pony-racing I did compete in was obviously good preparation for the track.

My father is good friends with some of the racecourse valets and sometimes helps them out at weekends. Through that connection I had the opportunity to do a month in Ballydoyle a couple of years ago where I was riding out three lots every morning and giving the feedback to Mr O'Brien after each horse had done their bit of work. It was amazing to have that experience and Seamie Heffernan and his son looked after me when I was down there.

I got my licence in the summer of 2021 and the first winner came in January of last year when Maccliff, trained by Ger Hussey, won at Dundalk at 40/1. It was brilliant to get the first one and I picked up plenty of experience on the turf last season with well over a hundred rides and six winners. I've had a good time at Dundalk again this winter and I've ridden seven winners since the start of this year.

Kevin O'Ryan has been my agent since I've been claiming seven and he does a great job for me. I've ridden some nice horses at Dundalk in recent weeks including Satono Chevalier for Richard O'Brien. He's been impressive in his last two wins and there's a race at Lingfield on Good Friday which is a possible target. I've also ridden three winners for Mark Fahey including a nice filly called Dayzee who won a maiden before being sold to England where she has already been successful

It was great to ride my first winner for Ger Lyons on Zola Sakura at Naas last autumn and I love riding out at his yard with Colin Keane, Gary Carroll and Mark Enright. I'm in there at the weekends and during school holidays at the moment and, once I'm finished the Leaving, I'll be in there most mornings. His yard is around 40 minutes from where I live. I've got my driving test coming up this week so hopefully that goes well and it'll make life easier if I have my own set of wheels.

Andrew McNamara is another trainer who has given me plenty of chances and I've won on Ellabella twice for him and also twice on Red Trail, who was one of a couple of winners I had at Navan last year. My dad was present for those wins at the local track and they were great days.

I get great support from my mother, Sinead, as well and also my siblings. My sister Katie is very much into horses herself and she rides out at Ger Lyons' yard.

When I was growing up the likes of AP McCoy and Pat Smullen were the jockeys I was watching, along with Johnny Murtagh and Colin Keane.

I'm looking forward to a busy weekend with Dundalk, the Curragh and Naas coming up. I still have a nice few winners left with my 7lb claim and I can ride at 8st 5lb after my claim is taken into account, so I'd be hopeful that I can pick up some good rides in some of the bigger handicaps this year. I'm fairly tall, but not overly so, and my weight seems good at the moment. Staying on the Flat is the plan and hopefully I can continue to learn and improve this season. John Gleeson did a good job for the Leaving Cert class of 2023 in the bumper at Cheltenham last week and I'll try to keep the flag flying on the Flat.