Tag Archives: sea the stars

An Interview with Rossa Ryan

Posted in Horse Racing, Interviews by

ROSSA RYAN 12TH

Hiya guys!

Today I have an interview with the up and coming flat jockey Rossa Ryan. Please note that this interview was conducted before the continuation of racing. I hope you enjoy!

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Me: What is your favourite race of your career, win or lose?

Rossa: To date, the Celebration Mile in Goodwood would be my favourite race I have won.

Me: If you could ride any horse that you never have, past or present, what horse would you choose?

Rossa: If I had my choice in whatever horse in history I could have ridden, I would have to say Sea The Stars.

Me: What are your opinions surrounding the discussions of banning the whip?

Rossa: I honestly am against banning it. I have done a few tours with people who have came racing to meet a jockey and I have showed them the whip and they could see after I showed them that it doesn’t hurt and it really changed their opinion of the whip after that. I could hit myself as hard as possible and it wouldn’t hurt. It’s only there to encourage horses to go forward for jockey’s.

Me: As a jockey, weight is obviously a huge thing for you guys, so what would you eat on a regular day?? Are there any periods across the year where you can actually just eat everything and anything or is it a strict kind of diet all year round?

Rossa: Well, it all depends on the weight you have that day. If, for instance, I had a light weight, I would eat little to nothing and if I had a heavy weight that day or the next I would eat dinner, if I was hungry. All depends day to day I suppose.

Me: What would you say to anyone who thinks racing is animal cruelty?

Rossa: I think they’re very wrong. I would love for the general public to actually witness the love that the stable staff, owners, trainers and jockeys have for these horses. We love our sport and we love horses. And the care the horses get is completely pampered to be honest. They’re so well looked after and you see it day to day how happy horses in racing are.

Me: Racing is an all year round sport, so when you do get some down time, what do you like to do?

Rossa: Well I’m from Ireland so when we get our time off I usually go home to visit my family and have a little holiday at home.

Me: Who do you look up to in the weighing room?

Rossa: Well I have always followed James Doyle on his style and also Sean Levey, he’s helped me massively in little guidelines to becoming a better jockey and is always there to give me advice if I need it.

Me: What’s your overall goal in racing over the upcoming few years?

Rossa: My overall goal, to hopefully ride a Group 1 winner and maybe, just maybe, be Champion Jockey.

Me: What is your ‘horse to watch’ for the next season or two?

Rossa: My horse to watch for the upcoming year would be Duke of Hazzard. He gave me my biggest win last year and he is on the upward curve to hopefully being a Group 1 horse this year.

Me: What is your best advice for young people who have a passion they want to follow, whether that be racing or something else?

Rossa: I think if you want to achieve a goal in life or make a dream come true… well I think for the best sports people of the world, they only got there through hard work. Going that extra mile where possible and putting that bit more practice in.

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Firstly, as always, I want to thank Rossa for his time. I personally think he has a promising future ahead, he is a brilliant rider and a credit to our sport. The fact he is so young sets him in good stead to have a long and hopefully successful career. I am excited to watch his journey over the upcoming years to see where he ends up.

Thank you for reading.

10

Sidenote: My raffle to raise money for the Stroke Association is now LIVE. So you can pop over to my Twitter and view this tweet for all information: https://twitter.com/zoelouisesmithx/status/1277629857460113410?s=20 There are some fantastic prizes and it is for a fantastic cause in honour of the 10 year anniversary of my mom’s stroke. The Stroke Association help not only those directly affected by a stroke, but also their families. They helped my mom massively and I wanted to raise money for them so they can continue to help other people in need. I hope you can all join me in raising money for this incredible cause!

 

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An Interview with Liam Keniry

Posted in Horse Racing, Interviews by

Liam Keniry

Hiya guys!

Today I bring to you an interview with Liam Keniry. I hope you enjoy!

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Me: What is your favourite race of your career, win or lose?

Liam: Favourite race, win or lose, would probably be the Cambridgeshire 2004 on a horse called Spanish Don who came along very early in my career, I was still an apprentice and won a couple stakes on him and obviously winning that Cambridgeshire at the time as an apprentice was very good. 

Me: If you could ride any horse that you never have, past or present, what horse would you choose?

Liam: Favourite horse I’ve never ridden would be Sea The Stars; what he did in his classic season was just brilliant. He had everything. Won the Guineas, the Derby and all them other races he did, it was probably just… yeah just amazing what he did that season.

Me: What are your opinions surrounding the discussions of banning the whip?

Liam: The whip… I think the BHA have the whip rules absolutely spot on and if the whip was every banned it would be a backwards step for racing, I believe. 

Me: As a jockey, weight is obviously a huge thing for you guys, so what would you eat on a regular day? Are there any periods across the year where you can actually just eat everything and anything or is it a strict kind of diet all year round?

Liam: As you get older it becomes easier to manage your weight. I would always have a little bit of breakfast no matter what weight I have that day. Something small to eat in the evenings and just plenty of exercise. Yeah, your weight is easier to manage when you’re quite busy doing  two meetings a day and stuff, so it’s not really an issue.

Me: What would you say to anyone who thinks racing is animal cruelty?

Liam: I think people who think racing is animal cruelty are probably people who have never been to a racing stables and haven’t seen how well these horses are looked after and cared for and how prepared they are when they go to racing. The majority of the time the horses are so prepared that they probably find it quite easy and I imagine most of them quite enjoy it.

Me: Racing is an all year round sport, so when you do get some down time, what do you like to do?

Liam: Yeah, it’s good to be busy. I prefer it that way, the busier you are, the fitter you are and I think the easier it is to keep your eye on the ball. If the racing gives time off it can be quite nice to go on holiday with the wife for a couple of days just to get away for a couple days. But in general it’s better to be busy.

Me: Who do you look up to in the weighing room?

Liam: I always looked up to Kieren Fallon when he was riding. He was just a genius in the saddle and he was Champion Jockey a many times. Especially in the big races, Fallon was as good as there was in his time riding I think.

Me: What is one race you’d love to win?

Liam: Any Group 1 race would be great. Yeah, any Group 1 race would be brilliant.

Me: What is your overall goal in racing over the upcoming few years?

Liam: I am very close to riding 1000 winners now, I think about 30 away from that so hopefully if we get back racing soon, if I can do that by the end of this year it would be good and just to continue to ride winners every year after that, that would be good.

Me: What would be your ‘horse to watch’ for the next season or two?

Liam: A horse looking forward to this season would probably be a horse called Indeed who is trained by Dominic Ffrench Davis. He did quite well last year and hopefully he should have a good year this year. We’d like to think he definitely up to winning in a listed class and hopefully there are a couple of big races in him yet.

Me: What is your favourite race course to ride at and why?

Liam: It would probably be Newbury. I am primarily based in Lambourn so Newbury would probably be my local track to there and I think it’s a big galloping track and quite fair, so yeah, it’s a good track Newbury, it’s a fair track and a good track and it’s always nice to ride a winner there. 

Me: What is your best advice for young people who have a passion they want to follow, whether that be racing or something else?

Liam: I think… always follow your dreams. Work hard. Working hard will always help you in life no matter what job you do.

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Firstly I want to thank Liam for his time, he gave some brilliant answers. Hopefully he reaches 1000 winners this year, I will definitely be following his progress as he becomes closer to that goal!

Thank you for reading.