This 17-year-old from Dingle is ready to take Cheltenham by storm
At just 17, Kerry ace is set to take Cheltenham by storm. Here is... By MARCUS TOWNEND
TED WALSH knows a thing or two about jockeys. The trainer, former leading amateur rider and now TV pundit bred a champion after all.
That gives his verdict on Jack Kennedy, the wunderkind of the Irish weighing room who is second to Ted’s son Ruby in the National Hunt jockeys’ championship, some serious perspective.
‘I am 67 now and I have never seen a 17-year-old ride like him,’ said Walsh. ‘He looks like a seasoned professional.’
British racegoers will get a chance to see what Walsh admires at next week’s Cheltenham Festival when Kennedy, from Dingle, will be in the thick of the action for trainer boss Gordon Elliott.
Kennedy made a relatively anonymous debut at the meeting last year when seventh on Squouateur in the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle.
This time round he is quoted prominently in the betting to be the meeting’s top jockey and will ride in his first Gold Cup.
Sport is full of precocious talents but Kennedy is doing things faster than almost any other jump jockey predecessor. At this same stage of his life, 20-time champion AP McCoy was still a few days from riding his first winner. Kennedy, whose older brother Paddy is a jockey, does everything in a hurry. At 13 he was a pony racing champion. He lifted the title three times.
He also won the Dingle Derby in 2014 on Coola Boula, trained by his father Billy. Allowed to ride thoroughbreds when he turned 16 in April 2015, his first winner, Funny How on the Flat at Cork, came the following month.
He has 103 wins from 717 rides in Ireland and was leading the jockeys’ title race until breaking a leg twice in the autumn.
Kennedy said: ‘I always wanted to be a jockey. My older brother Paddy got me into it. I finished school early. I didn’t cause trouble or anything but I would not have been the smartest. My best subject was Irish and my worst was everything else, especially maths.
‘I am delighted it is working out. It could not have gone any better. Gordon has been very good to me.
‘I was lucky I kept the ball rolling after losing my claim and becoming a fully-fledged professional. Within days I rode a couple of winners.
‘It would be great to pick up a winner at Cheltenham, but I’m just delighted to be there. Riding there last year was one of the best experiences of my life.’
Kennedy rode his first Grade One winner when Michael O’Leary’s Outlander won the Lexus Chase at Leopardstown’s Christmas meeting, and he will be wearing those colours in the Gold Cup a week tomorrow — whichever Bryan Cooper rejects of Elliott-trained Outlander or Don Poli will be Kennedy’s mount.