Hunter Chases and cross country races – it seems there’s no grey areas with them. You’re either a fan thereof or your not. I am totally in the former category. Thanks to the majesty of Enda Bolger, the late, great J. T. McNamara, Nina Carberry, Jamie Codd, Derek O’Connor and, more recently, Keith Donoghue.
And, perhaps most importantly, the equine giants who either got a new lease of life when transferred into the discipline or, in some cases, made entire careers in the unique format.
Think of horses like Garde Champetre, Buailtas And Fadas, Tiger Roll, Balthazar King and the greatest of them all, dear old SpotThedifference. There was another gallant steed who might never have had the profile or reached the heights of some of the aforementioned but was central to another piece of Cheltenham Festival history on what was probably his own career’s biggest day.
I refer to the redoubtable Michael Hourigan-trained warrior A New Story who enjoyed what was probably a career high when winning the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase at the Festival in what, if my maths are anywhere near right, was 2009. Thus making his 17-year-old Cork jockey Adrian Heskin one of if not the actual youngest Festival winning rider in history.
Heskin is 32 now and over the past weekend the boyish looking pilot announced his retirement from race riding. In one way, the decision comes as a shock because having returned from across the water, expectation would’ve been that he would have little difficulty in getting a foot in the door at home.
However, perhaps it is indicative of how unhealthily dominant Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott have become on the Irish jumps scene that somebody with as bulky a CV as the protagonist in this case feels unable to guarantee themselves a sustainable career.
He did, of course, take the plunge that few jockeys have succeeded at – that of being rider for a specific owner. Twice in Heskin’s case, firstly with Barry Connell here at home and then with Max McNeill on the far side of the pond. On paper, these look like great gigs – and when things go to plan they can be – but they are also trappy obstacle courses to be negotiated.
For example, trainers may not like being told to jock off their stable riders by specific owners. Likewise, jockeys, or certainly some thereof, won’t like being told how to do their job.
On that, I would be 100% with the jockeys. You don’t employ somebody to do a job and then tell them how to do it. It reminds me of a story about a farmer – no names shall be divulged – who, upon entering a neighbour’s field to give a dig out during peak season, was accosted by the receipient of the assistance to be informed that “There’s only one way to mow this field”, to which the benefactor replied ” Yeah, the way I’ve been doing it for the last 30 years, now get to f**k outta my way! “.
With Heskin having hung up the jodpurs, it will be very intersting to see whether he will remain involved in racing. Opportunities to do so are greater now than ever before.
As with any sport or industry, racing depends on its retired stars to cultivate those of tomorrow. Adrian Heskin will be as good an example as anybody to follow.
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