Things looking up for O’Regan
Forty-one winners last term and 40 more already clocked up this season. Those are the naked facts of Denis O’Regan’s emergence as one of our top national hunt jockeys, not bad for a lad who claims he’s still learning his trade.
Some might argue that as part of Noel Meade’s all-conquering champion stable, he should be posting big numbers, but the truth is he would not be at the yard in the first place if the trainer did not have the belief in him. That’s something O’Regan is very grateful for, but his aim now is to maximise the opportunities that comes his way.
A modest young man, he is imbued with talent and ambition in equal measure, but his feet are firmly planted on terra firma and he knows that he must continue to improve if he is to fulfil his lofty aims.
His claim to fame this year has, he says, is thanks to having had a “great summer”, but he knows that the offer to ride for Meade was the making of him.
“I started with Noel Meade at the beginning of last summer (2005) and unfortunately for him, Paul Carbery got injured. That opened up a lot of possibilities. Then I rode a big winner at Galway and it was great to go back there this year and get another winner after winning the Plate there last season,” O’Regan says.
“After riding 41 winners last year, to be already on the 40 mark this year is a great boost and the hope obviously is to continue to add to that. I had a winner in Newbury a couple of weeks ago for Henry de Bromhead and I’m getting a bit of exposure, so that’s good. But the thing is that I’m getting rides from some serious people in the game and I suppose the main aim now is to ride some big winners. But with the support of Noel Meade and an agent like Ciaran O’Toole, I can’t go too far wrong.”
O’Regan was actually offered the job as stable jockey at Michael Hourigan’s yard some time back, but felt the time was not right for such a move.
“I could have taken that, but I made a decision that it wasn’t right for me at the time. I’m still only 23 and I felt I owed something to Noel Meade because he had been so loyal and had given me so many opportunities – he actually got me the ride on Ansar in the Galway Plate. It would have been wrong to turn my back on him. I probably missed out on riding a few big winners for Michael, but I’ve still ridden the same number of winners.
“Michael still uses me when he needs me and I’ve had a great association with the likes of Church Island for him. I won four-in-a-row on him, including a Grade 2 and a Grade 3 and I won at Cheltenham on him. I won the big Guinness Hurdle at Listowel for Michael as well and I’ve sort of been lucky for him. Andrew McNamara has the job there now and he’s a really nice guy as well as being a top class professional, but I’ve no regrets.”
O’Regan says that growing up his idols were Paul Carbery and Timmy Murphy and that he can hardly believe he’s working with Carbery on a daily basis.
“I’ve always admired Paul as a jockey and to be able to learn from him has been invaluable. Add to that the fact that Noel is the Champion trainer and runs an amazing operation and it was something I just couldn’t walk away from. I get to ride a lot of winners for him – I rode 20 for him last year, half my eventual tally – so I knew my loyalty would not be wasted.
“On top of that I get a lot of support from outside – from different trainers and owners – but the best option for me then was to stick with Noel. All I want to do now is ride as many winners as I can and so far this season I can’t complain on that front.
“I am part of a great team at Noel’s and it is great to work with the likes of Paul and Slippers (Madden) and Nina (Carbery) and Jason McKeown, as well as the likes of Peter Kavanagh, who’s the top work rider there.”
The day you think you know everything is the day you go downhill, but being surrounded by such good people is fantastic and you’re learning all the time.”
From just outside Youghal in Co Cork, where his parents run Lombard’s pub on the Tallow Road, Denis says that he’s been interested in horses since he was a nipper. The second eldest of five brothers, he always wanted to be a jockey and spent all his holidays from school at John Crowley’s in Midleton and it was there he learned the rudiments of the trade.
“Even though I was always going to be a jockey, my mum and dad insisted that I do my Leaving Cert and finish school. They actually sent me to boarding school because they knew I wouldn’t finish school otherwise. I first sat on a racehorse at John’s place and I loved it right from the off. He’s a close relation of the family and he’s been very good to me. He sent me up to Francis Flood when I was seventeen and then, when I finished school, I went back up there and I won my second race on a horse owned by Mrs. Flood, which was a great thrill.”
His racing education eventually saw him gravitate to Noel Meade and he says that he’s learned to set ambitious goals for himself.
“You have to have a purpose in anything you do and I’ve been very lucky to have achieved some of mine. I represented Ireland in a jockeys’ challenge in Australia last year with Tom Ryan, Andy Mac and Bobby Molloy and that was exciting. I even had a winner out there. But all along I’ve been lucky to be associated with great people like John Crowley and Henry de Bromhead, who’ve given me great support right though my amateur days.”
O’Regan says he is his own hardest taskmaster and often took it too much to heart if he gave a horse a bad ride. However, he says that his education at Meade’s has taught him to be a lot more pragmatic now.
“Noel is a very down to earth man and he’s taught me how to deal with disappointment, amongst other things. He’s also taught me a lot about dealing with people, about handling myself in public and about having the right mentality for this game. He actually settled me down a lot and taught me a lot about being a professional. He’s kept my head right and I have to say that I might not have been able to handle things had I not benefited from his advice. The thing is that if my head’s right, then I’m right and I’ve learned that from him.”
His strengths as a jockey, he says, are that he works hard at his profession, would like to think people regard him as being good at handling horses over fences, is strong in a finish and has a “little bit” of style as well.
“I’m still learning and that’s the way I want it to be. If I can continue to learn, you never know where I might be in a year or two. I would like to go to England to work at some point. That would be a challenge and I suppose somewhere down the line I’d like to think I might get a big job over there.
“It would take a big job to take me away, but it would take a bigger job to keep me here, if I thought the time is right to go.
“I love riding in England and I had decent success there so far. I think it would be a natural progression to go there and learn. I’ve thought about it a lot and I’d definitely love to go. It is on the agenda, but I’ll have to talk to the boss and get his advice before anything like that happens.”
For now, however, the aim is to add to his winning tally as much as possible and maybe “ride a few big winners over Christmas” and he says he gets great confidence from the fact that a man of Noel Meade’s stature has the confidence in him to do the job.
“He sent me over to Cheltenham to ride Sweet Wake in the Greatwood Hurdle a few weeks back and it meant a lot that he had the belief to give me a horse like that to ride. Charlie Swan also has great faith in me and I’m able to pick up the phone and get their advice on anything at all. It is great to have that sort of support.”
Denis O’Regan is obviously a good listener and a good learner. He has come a long way in a very short time and the signs are that the rate of improvement is going to continue.
He maintains he’s been “lucky” but the evidence suggests otherwise.
