Scraping a living for the love of it
Normally you meet someone for a chat and you offer them their lunch. Or coffee and a biscuit, maybe.
That wasn’t the approach with Martin Ferris this week. Ferris is a jockey, one. He was trying to make weight for this weekend’s racing in Aintree, two.
Digestives and Kimberleys weren’t on the agenda, then.
“Normally I’d be ten stone six, stripped,” says Ferris. “The horse in the Topham (on Friday) has a weight of 10st3. For me to do the weight I’d want to be ten stone one, stripped, so I’ve five pounds to lose. I’ve been healthy all week, eating the right things and staying away from the bad stuff, the takeaways and so on, keeping myself in order.
“But I’ll go up to Thurles this afternoon (Thursday) and use the sauna at the racecourse for an hour, just to get rid of some weight. Afterwards? I’ll probably have something. A breast of chicken, maybe, just to fill the stomach.
“I’ll still have a pound or two to lose when I get to the racecourse over, so I’ll head into the sauna again – an hour maybe, out for a break and an orange, and back into it then.”
It’s a tall order, but the Mallow, Co Cork man makes light of the challenge.
“In fairness I knew last week. And ten three . . . I’d know I could do it at a push. But ten two, even though it’s only a pound lighter, I’d have to say no.
“Part of that is the National – I wouldn’t want anything to happen, like dehydration, to affect me for the National the following day. I can do it healthily at 10st3 – numerous times – but I’ve failed at 10st2, I’ve had to say on the day of a race that the last half-pound isn’t going to come off. That there’s nothing to come off.”
The motivation was easier for Ferris this week, because of the prize today: the prospect of a first ride in the biggest race in the world.
“It can be hard keeping an eye on your weight. You’re trying to keep it under control but when you’re rushing around between yards you can find you’re having a sandwich from a filling station, or on the way home from an evening meeting at twelve midnight, you stop at a chipper.
“It’s easy for Ruby (Walsh), Barry (Geraghty) and Tony McCoy to keep an eye on the weight when they have top class horses waiting for them. When you’re at the other end of the scale, on a horse that doesn’t have a chance, doesn’t have the ability to win, then it’s hard to push yourself to keep your weight in chance.
“It was different for me over the last ten days because I knew what was on offer, a ride in the National. It’s a mental thing. If I hadn’t been riding in the National, if I was going to Limerick with two horses which didn’t have a chance, then it’d be hard to push yourself to suffer for it.”
Ferris is quick to praise his agent — “Gary Cribbin’s very good to me; he has a lot of riders on his books but he looks after me well, he had a lot to do with getting me those rides” — before outlining the plans for the weekend.
“Dublin on Thursday night and stay with Andrew McNamara. We’ll get the same flight then Friday for Liverpool and the Topham. As this was fairly short notice, we couldn’t get accommodation in Liverpool, so we decided to rent a car in Liverpool and when we’re finished riding we’ll head down to Bristol, to visit John Thomas McNamara.”
McNamara, paralysed in a fall at Cheltenham, has been the focus of huge support from the racing community. Ferris is keen to see him: “I know John Thomas well — he’s Andrew’s first cousin, and I would have ridden point-to-points with him. I ride out for Enda Bolger, he works for Enda . . . there are people who’d know him a lot better, but I’d meet John Thomas three or four times a month.
“A lot of people aren’t aware of the risks. You’d doing it for a riding fee, basically, and the love of the game. Obviously the lads at the top are getting a lot out of it, but the lads scraping along making a living are risking their lives as well.
“But John Thomas is a great guy – he’s had a lot of falls and got up and walked away, it was just a one-in-a-million accident.”
Ferris has been lucky (“touch wood”). He’s dislocated his shoulder and done his AC joint, but apart from that it’s been cuts and bruises: “I’ve been able to walk away from any fall I’ve had, thank God.”
He and Andrew McNamara will get accommodation near Bristol and drive back to Aintree for the big day.
“Growing up you’d know about the Gold Cup, and big races in Ireland, but every child, from six or seven up, pretends to ride the Grand National out the front garden or in the sitting-room or somewhere. You never hear of them pretending to ride in the Gold Cup. It’s always the National.
“I’ve been to Cheltenham – I’ve not had any success, but the crowds there make it. Aintree might be a bit lower-key than Cheltenham, but the National is the be-all and end-all for me. Punchestown is five days here, big crowds as well, spectacular racing, but if I were told, ‘Martin, you can win any race you want,’ I’d pick the National.
“It’s once a year, forty jockeys only, I’ve never been in it before and might never again get a chance, so that all makes it special.”
He acknowledges the cliche, that the National is a lottery, though he stresses that a jockey must also be confident.
“It’s hard to enjoy it because you’re so focused on trying to make sure everything goes right – but at the same time you wouldn’t want it to pass you by, either.
“It’s hard to have fun and games, to have the attitude ‘I’m just here for the occasion’. You’ve got to go over thinking you’ve got a good chance of winning, the same attitude you bring to any race, and you can look back on it afterwards.
“The horse I’m going on (Becauseicouldntsee) has been there before, he has a good chance of running a lovely race – but it’s still a lottery. Anything could happen.
“Between Becher’s, the Chair, the Canal Turn . . . you could be running a lovely race, everything going well, and a loose horse could run into you. Not your fault at all, but you’re gone. So it is a lottery, and like any lottery, you need luck.”
The Mallow native got into racing through his father bringing him to point-to-points. He had horse-riding lessons at seven, eight years of age, and he can remember the horse not going fast enough for him. Even then.
“When I got older I met up with a jockey in England, Alan O’Keeffe, who did pony races. I got into it because I was interested and was determined to make it, so I listened and learned, I was very determined. Then we got a horse and I started tipping around . . ”
Before he left school Ferris was a serious jockey, and when he got his amateur licence he rode point to points and rode out mornings for trainer Gerry Cully. When Cully suggested Ferris take out a professional licence the youngster decided to give it a go.
“That was eight years ago. I won the Cork Grand National in Mallow and a few graded races, but nothing with huge hype. I average about ten or twelve winners a year, about three hundred rides a year, so I’m pretty happy with it.”
The work started to come in. When he started riding out for Edward O’Grady in Thurles he set up home in Cashel, then he started riding out for Mouse Morris, and then for Hillary McLoughlin, and Gordon Elliott, Sean Aherne, Jimmy Mangan . . .
When Ferris says he “does as much as he can”, he’s not joking. Take next week when the fanfare at Aintree dies away: “I’ll be back from Liverpool, into home, around 1.30am. Sunday morning off, then on to Limerick, the first race is off at 2.30pm. Monday in Enda Bolger’s to school a couple of horses which are heading to Punchestown, Tuesday probably in Hilary McLoughlin’s, Wednesday in Gordon Elliott’s, the rest of the week I’ll be riding out in Cork, or out in Hilary McLoughlin’s. That’s a jockey’s life when you’re not retained.”
The recession has hit horse-racing, just as it’s hit every industry.
“The prize money’s gone back a bit, though there are plenty of race meetings a few of them have been cut. Days have been taken off meetings that should be left as they are. Meetings like Sligo, Kilbeggan, Ballinrobe, they all get big crowds and it’s the likes of me get rides there at summer meetings.
“But when days are taken from those meetings and added to bigger meetings then the crowds come, but there are fewer opportunities for the lesser jockeys.
“The recession’s hitting everyone but I’m getting rides, and getting them every day there are races. If I start getting less than 150 rides a year, though, I’d have to look at it.”
Ferris has an eye on life beyond racing. Hilary McLoughlin is his life partner and the long-term goal is to set up with her, training horses together. But today, and one race, is all that matters.
“My mother was going to go over but I told her she’d be better off watching it from home, so she’ll have it on the box back home in Mallow. She’ll get a great kick out of it.
“My Dad died last September. He was a huge racing man, he went every day. He’d be the proudest man in the world to see me ride in the National.”
