Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
It’s all about TV winners.. Royal Ascot was massive
HE rides favourite Projection in one of the signature handicaps of the Flat racing summer.
But Kieran Shoemark’s roots lie a world away from the linen suits and panamas of Glorious Goodwood.
Both Cheltenham-born Shoemark’s father Ian and grandfather Bill made their living as jump jockeys, a sphere in which brother Conor also plies his trade.
“I was brought up in the Cotswolds, the heart of jump racing, and my earliest memories are of going to Cheltenham,” recalls the 21-year-old.
“I wanted to be a jump jockey up until I was 15, but I wasn’t very big, and my dad wanted me to be a Flat jockey. He knows how hard jump racing is, and the injuries that come with it. If you’re successful on the Flat, it’s better money and there’s less chance of injury.”
Shoemark began his time at Andrew Balding’s Kingsclere stable, where Will Buick, Oisin Murphy and David Probert were apprenticed.
His early career was a slow burn - he rode his first winner over three and a half years ago - but 2017 has seen Shoemark gather new-found momentum.
Most young jockeys see calls for their services wane as their weight allowance reduces from 7lb to 5lb and then 3lb.
But Shoemark, who rode out his claim with a hat-trick at Epsom last month, is in high demand.
Boss Roger Charlton is content to entrust him with Projection’s saddle in the Qatar Stewards’ Cup, John Gosden is a regular supporter, and recent successes have come via Luca Cumani and Marcus Tregoning.
Even Ryan Moore is enthusiastic. “He’s a good kid,” rates gushing praise from Europe’s top jockey.
“When you’re riding for the likes of them, other people think, ‘He must be doing something right,’” adds Shoemark. “And you pick up other rides.
“It’s gone the other way to most apprentices. As I’ve lost my claim, I’ve got lots of publicity.
“I think when you’re getting down to the last 10 or 15 winners of your claim, trainers aren’t using you for your claim - it’s because they like the way you ride.
“I’m getting good opportunities.” Shoemark was granted the chance aboard Atty Persse, trained for Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin team by Charlton, in the King George V Handicap at Royal Ascot.
Showing the cool of an old hand, he guided his mount to victory, the rider’s first on terrestrial TV.
“It was a great day,” remembers Shoemark. “It was my first-ever Royal Ascot and I think I’d had two Royal Ascot rides before that race.
“It’s all about televised winners, and I hadn’t actually had a televised winner - on Channel 4 or on ITV - up until then.
“It was crucial because I was about to lose my claim when there was loads of racing going on. It really put me on the map - I was getting interviewed every day.” And the bookies rate Shoemark’s prospects of another triumph before the ITV cameras - Projection, beaten less than a length when third in the Wokingham at Royal Ascot, is the layers’ 7-1 favourite for the feature race of Glorious Goodwood’s final day.
“It was unfortunate how the race panned out,” says Shoemark, riding the four-year-old for the first time that day.
“We were drawn on the stands’ side - the wrong side because all the pace was on the far side. We won the race on our side, and were beaten three-quarters of a length.
“But in the Stewards’ Cup, he’s drawn 27 - on the stands’ side - and he’s surrounded by plenty of pace.
“He wasn’t beaten far in the Stewards’ Cup consolation race last year, and there’s definitely a big handicap in him.
“I think he’ll be hard to beat.”