Oisin Murphy on Red Galileo in Derby less than a year after first winner

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/jun/05/oisin-murphy-red-galileo-the-derby-first

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Oisin Murphy’s 19th birthday is three months away but, for the apprentice jockey who has rocketed to prominence, there is an anniversary of comparable significance in less than a fortnight. On 16 June, the eve of Royal Ascot, it will be just one year since he booted home his first winner.

On Saturday, the Kerry man will have a ride in the Derby, a breathtaking privilege for anyone at such an early stage of their career. He was working as a stable lad at last year’s Derby meeting, leading Here Comes When around the paddock before it ran fourth in a Listed race. It was Murphy’s first visit to Epsom.

“It’s unbelievable,” he says of the chance to ride in the Classic. “When I say unbelievable, I mean it, now. I didn’t believe my agent when she said it to me. It’s a race you grow up watching, all the way through from [2001 winner] Galileo, maybe would have been the first time I heard of the Derby, because it was such a big thing back home. Then I suppose Frankie winning on Authorized [in 2007] would have been my next memory.”

While working at Epsom last year, Murphy bumped into Aidan O’Brien, Ireland’s dominant Flat trainer at whose Tipperary base he had had valuable experience in previous summers. “He said, ‘I see you’ve had a few rides, just keep tipping away’. I’ll be meeting him again, hopefully, over Derby weekend. It’s great, the progress I’ve made, but it’s all down to being given great opportunities. I’m very fortunate.”

Murphy is certainly that and he concedes that some of his rivals have shown resentment over his astonishingly rapid rise. “Yeah, of course, but you get that in any walk of life or in any job, right? It has to fly over your head. You need to have one target there the whole time and I do and that keeps you focused. There’s good craic [in the weighing room] and it’s usually an enjoyable place.”

Murphy makes a good impression in an interview, proving articulate, responsive and poised. He thrums with self-belief but makes an effort to temper that with self-deprecation. He has been very well grounded.

The son of a farmer, he has been riding since he was four and, from an early stage, has looked up to his uncle, Jim Culloty, who won Gold Cups on Best Mate and a Grand National on Bindaree and has since trained Lord Windermere to win another Gold Cup. Murphy lived with Culloty during his last two years at school and has cleared fences on Lord Windermere, though he has no desire to switch codes and be a jump jockey.

Last year, he joined Andrew Balding’s yard here in Hampshire, a stable famed for its ability to turn out talented apprentices. Saturday’s Derby field will include two other jockeys who cut their teeth there, William Buick and David Probert.

But no one in recent racing history has risen faster than Murphy, who first made a splash in September when landing the Ayr Gold Cup on a 20-1 shot and then winning the last three races on the card as well. Sent to Australia for the winter to learn some hard lessons about pace, he proved as successful, winning a Listed race among others and returning with ringing endorsements from the trainers there. Back in Britain, he recently won his first Group race on Hot Streak.

“It’s obviously been rapid but it’s all down to the chances I’ve been getting,” he says, sipping water in a pub near Balding’s yard. “I’ve got plenty of rides and my agent, Sara Metcalfe, has worked very hard. Last year, the boss really got behind me. I was getting good rides and thankfully it’s continued into this season.

“Hopefully, things will keep going well. I’m on a bit of a losing streak at the minute, I’ve had a few seconds the past few days. But you get that. You have to take the bad days as well because they make the good days even more enjoyable.”

What does he do well? “I try and do my homework, I watch the replays and I try and ride as well as I can and keep improving. I always know where there’s pace. Often, it’s not what way the horse was ridden last time. The same jockeys ride the same races all the time. Craig Williams in Australia really clued me in to that. There’s some jockeys that will always like to drop in a little bit and there’s some that will always go forward.

“They do a lot of speed maps in Australia and I kind of do my own little map, where everyone will be in the race. I’ll have an idea who’ll be first, second, third, fourth, where do I want to be then? That’s kind of helped a lot.

“Personally, I’d say I like to go forward a lot. It’s the type of horse I ride. Andrew’s horses are generally ridden up with the pace and it’s been very successful for him. The way I ride races, I’m not afraid to make the running now. Whereas maybe last year, I wouldn’t have known how quick I was going or I might have second-guessed myself a little bit.

“I wouldn’t ride an awful lot of hold-up horses. It’s important, obviously, when you ride horses like that, that you get them settled and thankfully I don’t have the worst hands in the world but it all depends how you’re getting on with them”.

The chances are that you will be hearing more of Murphy but possibly not in the immediate aftermath of the Derby, in which he will ride Red Galileo, a 150-1 shot. “Obviously, I’ve watched his replays and he’s uncomplicated. Hopefully things will go smoothly.

“It’ll all depend on how he handles the track and things like that, as it will for the whole field, and obviously he has a lot to find on ratings. There’s going to be a lot of runners and it could be a messy race. Australia, on form and everything, he’ll be hard to beat and obviously Kingston Hill and Western Hymn and the other Ballydoyle horses are the ones to fear most.”

On the same day, he rides the 66-1 shot Beacon Lady in another top-class race, the Coronation Cup. “She has a bit to find on ratings. I’ve won on her before. She’ll handle the track, she’ll love the ground. She could run a nice race and finish behind a few of them.”

Murphy reports that he has 11 winners to go before he will lose the apprentice jockey’s right to claim 3lb off the backs of his mounts. Then, hours after we speak, he goes to Kempton, scores on an 11-4 shot and reduces that number to 10. He says that Balding would like to preserve the last of his claim for Royal Ascot the week after next, when it might make the difference in a major handicap.

After that, Murphy will have to prove himself on level terms with vastly more experienced jockeys. But, since he is already riding in Group races in which he cannot use his claim, it seems there will still be a big demand for his skills.

Murphy is not taking that for granted. “My biggest task at the moment is trying to establish my place. Obviously the professionals around at the moment are world class and they won’t be going anywhere for a while, so it’s trying to fit in and be as good as some of them or try and be as good.”