Photographer Healy is one of the best placed to judge Kerry’s cohort of emerging and established jockeys
HAVING taken his first racing photograph for his father, Liam, as a nine-year-old back in 1979, Pat ‘Cash’ Healy is now in his sixth decade behind the camera.
In all that time, he has bore witness to the magisterial qualities of many a rider upon many a horse. What does he make then of the current Kerry contingent of jockeys?
JACK KENNEDY and OISIN MURPHY
“JACK is gifted, but he just hasn’t had the luck to go on a run yet. You would put him on the same level as Oisin when they are both on form. They both came from the pony racing game, where Jack would have been more of a Hollywood name in that sector.
“Jack has simply been dogged with injuries up to now. When he is on a roll, or in a position to challenge for champion jockey, he gets injured. On the other hand, Oisin went to England, his graph went up and up, he steered clear of injuries, and last year he was champion flat jockey across the water.
“Jack is only 21, so he is still young enough to be a champion. He is certainly good enough, but he needs to stay injury-free. Getting a bad injury can make you as a jockey. Before injury and after injury, are two different kettles of fish.
“I always look at Ruby Walsh. When he came back from bad injuries, the hunger, the drive and the bottle was still the same. Some jockeys, after bad falls, come back and they are not the same rider. Mentally, it does something to them. But the greats like Ruby and Tony McCoy, the physical pain they endure never changed them.
“Oisin is the best communicator in the racing game. As a business man, you should watch and listen to Oisin on TV and social media. He is level-headed and is so good with the media. He is box office in Japan, a whole different culture. The hardest colony to break into in racing. And he is like a Hollywood movie star over there! He couldn’t take two steps down the street in Nakayama and he would get mobbed. He has cracked the Far East at 24 years of age!
“The way he comes across, he’s an example of a young person who has grown up with social media and has used it to his advantage. I would advise any 16 or 17-year-old to look at Oisin, the way he rides, his work ethic, his PR.”
BRYAN COOPER
“I was in the yard with himself and his dad a few weeks ago. His mom Geraldine came out, I am very fond of her. Bryan was ‘Super Cooper’ and then he broke his leg at Cheltenham. He was lucky that the leg wasn’t amputated. His mother had a hard job to look after him after that.
“Imagine when your child falls off a bike, or gets a cut playing football, never mind nearly losing a leg. Geraldine had the hardest job to look after Bryan, both mentally and physically, after all that.
“Fair play to him though, he came back, he climbed the highest mountain to get the Gigginstown gig, and then he won the biggest race of all for them, the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Don Cossack in 2016. I was delighted for his mom too.
“Then, of course, he got sacked as a young man, and he has to fight his own corner now. I always judge a jockey on a losing ride, not a winning ride. In many races, the second or third-placed finisher probably did a better job than the winner, because the horse they were riding might not have deserved to finish so close to the winner.
“Bryan gave two horses two absolutely fantastic rides at Cheltenham in March, they both finished second. The ability is still there, he still has it for sure, all he needs is the right horse now. Paul Nolan’s Native Exhibition could well be that horse to bring Bryan back into the Premier League.”
THE BROUDER BROTHERS, GEAROID, KEVIN and GAVIN
“THERE is great credit due to the three of them. They are all gifted riders, absolutely gifted. Kevin has really raised the bar this season. He is now acknowledged among his peers as an excellent jockey.
“For me though, if things go his way, the best of them will be the youngest, Gavin. If he can stay clear of the injuries that have bedevilled Jack Kennedy and Bryan Cooper, he could go all the way to the very top. At his age now, nineteen, he is the best of the three lads.
“He could turn out to be the first Kerry champion jumps jockey since Tommy Stack in the 1970s. That’s how good he could be. It all comes down to luck, and avoiding bad injuries at bad times.”
PHILIP ENRIGHT
“I saw him ride his first winner about fifteen years ago. You can sum up Philip in one sentence. He is the hardest working jockey in racing. And probably the nicest fella in the horse racing game. He works awful hard and would do anything for you. He deserves every ounce of success. You would wear out a set of tyres on a new car to meet a fella as nice as Philip Enright.”