Hard Work, Study Keeps Whelan On Right Track

[Wandering Eyes]

There’s a clutch of young Irish apprentices currently combining finishing their Leaving Cert at school with riding winners. If you lined up teenagers Ben Coen, Gavin Ryan and Andrew Slattery alongside their weighing-room colleague Ronan Whelan, it might not be easy to pick out which one has already been working full-time for a decade. Whelan, 26, has been with Jim Bolger since leaving school, and became champion apprentice in 2012, but he looks as fresh-faced today as he did back then.

“I might look like a baby, and it’s the old saying, but there are quite a few horses now where I can say I’ve ridden their mothers or their fathers and brothers and sisters,” he says with a grin.

That depth of knowledge of a horse’s forebears is one of the invaluable lessons learned from Bolger, who is not just a master trainer but also an extremely successful owner-breeder. Over the years, Bolger has also earned a reputation for being something of a stern headmaster, and some of the two-legged graduates from his stable have gone on to enjoy championship careers of their own, such as Aidan O’Brien and AP McCoy. It’s a thorough grounding, beyond just the art of riding a racehorse, which will stand Whelan in good stead as his career progresses.

Clearly astute himself, Whelan is smart enough to realise that the opportunity to learn from one of the best in the business is to be grabbed with both hands. He doesn’t restrict his riding out to Bolger’s stable, but the trainer is still “the boss” and an important touchstone.

“I do four mornings a week with Jim Bolger and two others with John Oxx, Michael Halford, Tracey Collins, and just anyone else will have me after that. I’ve been with Mr Bolger since the start.  I struggle a bit with my weight so I have no other choice but to work hard at that, but I enjoy being busy, it keeps my head right and because I enjoy it, it doesn’t really feel like work to me,” he says.

Whelan’s father, Tom, a well-known figure on the sales circuit, consigning through his Church View Stables, has expressed wonder at his son’s dedication to the cause, which goes beyond riding out, to regular gym sessions and running.

“My dad’s actually said to me a few times ‘would you just go out and enjoy yourself’,” says the Kildare-born jockey as we chat at the Curragh during the Irish Guineas meeting, at which he rode two winners in the colours of the Aga Khan for regular supporter Michael Halford.

“You have to be on the ball and know what’s going on, but at the same time try to enjoy it a bit, too. To get winners here in those colours for Mr Halford, who has been so good to me, well it’s what you get up in the morning for,” he continues, then adds with a laugh, “It’s what people think I work hard for.”

Bolger himself has referred to Whelan’s level-headedness and it is clearly a trait which will get him through the sometimes choppy waters of being a jockey.

Whelan says, “It’s all about taking steps through your career.  When I lost my claim I struggled a bit and Sheila Lavery and Johnny Levins gave me a helping hand, and then Patrick Prendergast came along at the right time for me. I started riding a bit for him and rode a listed winner and some others in my first year with Patrick, and then I was lucky enough that Skitter Scatter came along the following year.”

Anthony and Sonia Rogers’s Cartier champion 2-year-old filly Skitter Scatter (Scat Daddy) is unlikely to be a horse Whelan will forget in a hurry. She provided him with his first Group 1 winner in last year’s Moyglare Stud S., and then a first ride in the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket, during which, unfortunately, she sustained a hamstring injury.

Whelan, unsurprisingly, retains his enthusiasm for the filly, who is now trained by John Oxx. He says, “She’s a jockey’s dream. She’s so straightforward, she’s rock solid.  Last year, she just kept running and running and every time she ran she was underestimated but she kept on winning.  Really the first time she got a bit of respect when she went off favourite for the Moyglare, and she won that, and it’s only now that I look back that I realise what a big deal it was. She made it so easy.”

He adds, “Nowadays I am more associated with her than anything. I was gutted for Patrick and Mr Oxx and her owners more than anything in the Guineas.  I can just get down off her and walk away but they have to go over everything.  She’s in good hands and she’ll be well looked after. If we can get her back that will be great but she certainly doesn’t owe me anything.”

With Skitter Scatter, Whelan has experienced the ups and downs of racing, and he’s all too aware that they almost always go hand in hand.

“One thing I’ve noticed is that while the big days are great, they can come and go, and in this game you can be as high as you want but you can be as low very quickly,” he says. “So to me it is really important to treat every race as it comes. You might be riding in the 1000 Guineas one day, but on that same day there’s someone with a horse in a handicap who means as much to them as winning the Guineas would be to the person with the favourite in that. Different people have different expectations and you have to treat them all the same and just do your best.”

Whelan constantly name-checks those who have helped him along the way and is clearly appreciative for all the outside rides he can muster while he remains understudy to the evergreen Kevin Manning. Those trainers who put their faith in him are in turn benefiting from the education he continues to receive at Bolger’s hand.

“He treats me no differently now than to when I was an apprentice,” Whelan says. “When I was weighing up how to approach the Guineas and analysing things, it was only really then that it hit home for me that everything the boss has said to me over the years I now use as my approach, especially on a big day like that.

“I’ve been placed in the Irish Guineas and the Irish Derby and in a few Group 1s for the boss, but always on the second string, so there is pressure but the buck doesn’t end with me; Kevin was always the one who had the big pressure.  But seeing the boss and Kevin, and how they worked on their big Group 1 days when I was a young lad, when the buck ended with me this time [on Skitter Scatter], it was only then that I appreciated how what they had taught me stood me in good stead.  Okay, so it didn’t work out that time, but it’s just simple things, like going down to the start.  If a horse pulls a shoe with you at home at Bolger’s that’s almost a sackable offence, so it’s just simple things like you make sure that when you are going to the start you don’t let your horse over-reach. You can win or lose races then, so it’s important to keep them together and make sure you’re aware of every little thing that’s going on around you.”

He continues, “These are the little things stick with you and you can see how it is that Mr Bolger has taught so many people so well over the years. I ride out every day, so I get to know the horses and how to handle the horses and you can bring those things from home to the races when it comes to how to manage them and know their minds. I think working for Jim Bolger has made me a rider first, before being a jockey, and if you threw me up on one and asked me to pull him together I think I could do that. He teaches you to be a horseman really, that’s what he does.”

The other important lesson that can be learned at Coolcullen is one which Whelan can hopefully take with him to his next career when his riding days are over, though the groundwork is already being laid.

“Pedigrees are so interesting,” he says. “When I ride one at Mr Bolger’s, I can nearly always tell you what it’s by, what it’s related to. It’s amazing the traits that go through families. Before I would think to myself that pedigree couldn’t be that important, but actually when you are seeing families for so long it’s amazing how on point it is, especially when it comes to temperament.”

With his father, whom Whelan used to accompany to Kildaragh Stud as a child during Tom’s days working for the Kavanagah family, the jockey is already taking a hand in the bloodstock business, which can be every bit as unpredictable as life as a rider. He set up his own company, Flash Bloodstock Ltd, with his fellow Bolger employee Gordon Power, to start a pinhooking venture.

“I love going to the sales as much as I love going to the races,” he admits. “I have a huge interest in that side of the business and Larry Stratton is a big part of our business, helping dad choose the horses at the sales. Most of the bloodstock that dad has I’m involved in, from mares, foals, yearlings and a couple of 2-year-olds.”

He continues, “I love looking at conformation and pedigrees and dad is trying to teach me as much as he can.  After this game I see myself going into that side of things. Having an interest in it gives you a different aspect as a jockey. If I win on a horse, I always check to see who has bred it, who consigned it, what he made as a yearling. It broadens your mind a bit.”

Applying such disciplined thought to his riding has already helped Whelan to be among the forerunners of the Irish jockey ranks. It would be foolish to underestimate the workings of that mind behind the baby face.

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