Darragh O’Keefe, the winner of Horse Racing Ireland’s inaugural Emerging Talent Award, spoke about his career and his relationship with trainer Enda Bolger.
O’Keefe was speaking on Friday Night Racing and attributed much of his early success to Bolger and racehorse owner J.P McManus.
“It’s unbelievable. They’ve got me going. In fairness to Enda, he taught me loads. I rode on the flat a bit but I was just never naturally light enough.
“I was kind of in-between the weights and Enda was only a half an hour down the road for me at home.
“You go into some yards and you don’t get the chance to be schooling that much. Whereas when you go to Enda’s the minute you go into the yard there, you’re schooling every day.
“You’re jumping a mixture of jumps. When you’re doing something wrong he’ll tell you. So that’s what I wanted - to learn. You couldn’t go to a better man,” O’Keefe said.
Bolger’s yard employs different training methods than most, with each horse training in a variety of disciplines, which O’Keefe believes helps both the horses and the jockeys greatly.
“What I find about Enda’s [yard] is no matter what horse it is… they’ll do something new or different every day. They’re not going around the gallop every day.
“They could be going around the road, they could be going around the forestry. They could do anything, they could do hill work. He’d school them in whatever. He could jump anything with them.
“There’s a variety of jumps down there - a mixture from Punchestown and Cheltenham. He has a lovely course there and it’s a lovely place as well,” O’Keefe said.
While the young jockey admitted that the varied schedule can be challenging, he wouldn’t have it any other way and enjoys the variety in his work.
“What I find with the horses is they always seem to be happy. You never find a horse there that’s not enjoying it really.
“They always seem to love their work and they love going out in the mornings. For the jockeys and for myself as well, when you go in there you never know what you’re going to be doing for the day.
“That’s what I like about it. You’re not going to do the same thing every day. It’s a challenge as well but it’s great,” O’Keefe said.
You can watch the full interview with Darragh O'Keefe above via our YouTube channel. Friday Night Racing is in association with Horse Racing Ireland.
