RIDE TO RECOVERY
OIan Power walked away from racing in his prime because he had ‘no purpose’ but now, after eight lost years, he has found fulfilment in the saddle again
N THYESTES Chase day, Ian Power stood in the parade ring at Gowran Park before the Beginners’ Chase. ‘What number am I riding?’ he checked. It was seven, Kellyiscool, a 40/1 outsider, who had never jumped a fence in public before.
A few minutes later, Power guided the eight-year-old to third, behind the hotpot Coeur Sublime, earning €2,600 for connections.
His afternoon was over. Two rides, both long shots, one came nowhere in the handicap hurdle and one was placed. He’s had worse days. Far worse.
Power, 40, has the craggy visage and misshapen nose of a jump jockey. And at his age, most are planning an escape from Dodge.
But Power is eager to make up for his lost years, eight in all. As he told Sportsmail: ‘I wasn’t running away from racing, but rather myself.’
His story in the sport began as so many do. After sitting on an aunt’s horse aged 12 in Carrick-on-Suir, he was hooked. ‘I never wanted to get off.’
Following riding lessons from Waterford trainers John Kiely and Pat Flynn, Power attended the RACE school at the Curragh for apprentice jockeys.
He rode on the Flat and then turned to the jumps when his weight went up, but finding winners wasn’t easy.
In 2012, he rode just one, before walking away. Until 2020, there was no ‘IJ Power’ on the racecard, or in the weighing room.
‘I just downed tools and said, “I’m not doing this any more.” I had no purpose to what was going on around me,’ he said of the decision to turn away from racing and face up to himself.
For his prime years as a jockey, Power was working on building sites, ‘tipping away’ a bit with horses and coming to terms with himself.
His tale is a reminder that, for every success in horse racing, among the jump jockey cadre there are those who struggle. And Power certainly struggled before finding peace.
‘Before, I was very impulsive. I would never think about tomorrow, I would never think about the past. I was immature,’ he said.
‘I had a lot of things going on inside myself. I was never comfortable with who I was.
‘I suppose I was never able to be a man in life.
‘If I had a thousand pounds and I lost it, I wouldn’t care. There was no emotion in it. Maybe I had depression, I don’t know. I put walls up around me and blocked things out...but I didn’t know it.
‘I never cared about myself because I didn’t know how to. ‘I could never love anything because I could never love myself. What was going on with me, someone would laugh at you, if I told them what I was thinking. Mostly, I was putting on a show.
‘Slowly as I matured, I saw things from outside the bubble looking in rather than being inside the bubble looking out. Things started to make more sense.’
It’s a very honest account, delivered without fear or favour amid the hubbub of 8,500 racegoers in deepest Kilkenny. Within the racing fraternity, are many who have helped to put support structures around Power, among them his family, trainers Alice Curran and Paddy Corkery and, more recently, his agent, ex-jockey Ken Whelan.
It was Curran who provided Power with his first win back after his exile, on Jackson’s Gold in Roscommon in August 2020, while Corkery’s stable star Master McShee has lifted Power to places he never imagined.
So why did he decide to return? ‘I was at Leopardstown’s Christmas meeting in 2019 with my father (Patrick) and brother (Kenneth) and I said, “You know what? I might as well get the licence out again. If I got two or three rides a month, wouldn’t it be extra money?” I was schooling horses away at the time.
‘They supported my decision as they always wanted me to go back racing.’
If Jackson’s Gold cranked up the revs on Power’s return with three wins, it has been Master McShee who has pushed him into top gear, not least in the Grade One novice chase at Limerick on St Stephen’s Day.
Power lights up as he recalls his finest hour.
‘To end up in a Grade One race was one thing, to actually win one was another altogether.’
In a gripping duel, Power conjured up a last-gasp surge by Master McShee to chin the favourite, Farouk D’Alene ridden by Jordan Gainford, on the line, although not everyone agreed, including the course commentator.
‘He called it at the end of the running rail but the lollipop (winning post) is a stride after. I thought I’d got there but coming back in, everyone was saying that Jordan’s (horse) had won.
‘Walking into the parade ring, Paddy Corkery came out with a smile, with his two thumbs up. I said, “Did we win?” and he said “We did.” It was brilliant. It was only ever my second ride in a Grade One.
‘Whatever about me, it was all the people supporting me. The achievement you’ve been part of for someone else is brilliant.
‘The Currans stood by me. Same with Paddy. He’s one horse in training. He could have any jockey in the country riding the horse. He stood by me every time.’
Master McShee dives in at the deep end next Sunday at Leopardstown in the Grade One €150,000 Ladbrokes Novice Chase at the Dublin Racing Festival, where ‘talking horse’ Galopin Des Champs will be expected to reign.
Power won’t be perturbed. ‘I know he can jump, I know he can stay, I know he can quicken on heavy ground. Also, he won a handicap at Leopardstown last year in a time only a second slower than Appreciate It.
‘If he can build on that at all, he’s well entitled to give it a shot.’
On Friday morning, Power was up with the larks. He had to ride two lots at Joseph O’Brien’s Piltown yard, then drove 45 minutes to school Master McShee in Kiely’s Cross in Waterford.
There was another school for Jackson’s Gold in the afternoon, and plenty of calls to yards in between. He was at Fairyhouse yesterday and rides Jackson’s Gold at Naas today. When there is time at home in Dungarvan, he’ll walk his dog, Nala. ‘I’m busy and I love it,’ he said.
‘Not in a million years did I think I’d be riding every day, or I’d have an agent who’s been great for me.
‘I enjoy what I’m doing, I’ve good people around me and I appreciate it. Before, I couldn’t appreciate myself so I couldn’t appreciate the people around me.
‘One thing I know now is that no one’s the same, everyone has their own journey.
‘I’m going to keep going away as long as my body can hold up to it. See if I can get a few of the years back that I lost out on. Whatever’s coming next, I’m ready for it.’
No one would begrudge Power an Indian Summer to his stop-start career.
‘IF I HAD A THOUSAND QUID AND LOST IT, I WOULD NOT CARE’