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Jockeys
From Page 9
Even the southern hemisphere has offered up an American champion.
New Zealander Craig Thornton has been champion in both countries. He was New Zealand’s champion jump rider in 1991 and leading U.S. jump jockey in 1992 and 1998.
But Ireland is the biggest supplier of U.S. leaders. Almost an American fairy tale, there was once a little leprechaun of a jockey. With a very funny accent. Hard to understand. The name? Leo O’Brien. O’Brien and his brother Michael came to America in 1964 to ride for top trainers and owners like Raymond Guest and Mike Smithwick. O’Brien ruled in New York.
“We had a jump race every day in the summer,” O’Brien recalled when interviewed at his Belmont Park stable, where he now trains. “The sport was new and exciting. New York loved it.”
The Irishman doesn’t think he would have been successful if he had stayed in his hometown of Dublin.
“I am quite small and the horses had to carry a lot of weight in Ireland,” he said. The growing American ‘chase circuit “was a great opportunity for me to do well.”
O’Brien, who was one of the National Steeplechase Association’s leading riders from 1964-76, said he misses riding over fences.
“There was this feeling you get when you are really, really fit,” he said. “You feel like you can do anything and ride anything, it’s the greatest feeling in the world.”
More from the old country
A fellow Irish import calling America home is champion trainer Janet Elliot.
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