FEATURE MICHAEL O’SULLIVAN
Marine Nationale and Michael O’Sullivan after winning the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle (Grade 1) at this year’s Cheltenham Festival
O’Sullivan receiving the award for champion conditional jockey at Punchestown Festival in April 2023 for the Irish season
and hunting with The Pony Club and that’s where it all started. I did a lot of point-to-pointing. I think I had something like 400 rides and 34 winners, so I got a lot of good experience. Then I got a degree as well at University College Dublin, studying animal science. “I finished that last year around May time, after four years of studying, so I rode as an amateur and turned professional that September.” Having finished university, it would be with trainer Barry Connell and a certain Marine Nationale that O’Sullivan would get his big break, and he reveals that it was a partnership that was struck up in rather unusual circumstances – while he was milking cows on his dad’s farm: “There was a meeting coming up at Punchestown last May and I was at home working around the cows with my father. I was checking through the entries for the bumpers, which I’d do all the time and then I’d try and call round and get rides. “I’d ridden for Barry once before and had nothing to lose, so I just texted him to ask if he was OK for the bumper. He replied and I got the ride on him, thank God, and that text has gone a long way for me since! “He won that day first time out, when we didn’t really expect him to win, and I’ve ridden him every day
since and I’ve won on him every day since, so it’s been brilliant and I’m very lucky.” Marine Nationale hasn’t looked back since that debut success at Punchestown and he would go on to win his next three starts under O’Sullivan, providing him with a first Grade One success in the Royal Bond Novice Hurdle at Fairyhouse that December. The scene was set for the Supreme and you would expect a jockey who was having just his second ride at the Festival to be nervous, but O’Sullivan explains that the day instead passed as a blur. He says: “It was my second-ever ride at the Festival, so it was exciting, obviously, and I didn’t feel any pressure as you can’t expect to win a race like that. “It all happens so quickly. Once you get back after riding out and put on your suit, you’re back at the track and the race is on before you know it. “It wouldn’t be normal if you didn’t get some nerves, but I really like the pressure of riding on those bigger days. Luckily, everything went smoothly and he was really good on the day – it’s amazing how smoothly it went, really. “I had a moment of worry when Paul [Townend] kicked for home on Facile Vega. He nicked a couple of
“I’d ridden for Barry once before and had nothing to lose, so I texted him to ask if he was OK for the bumper”
18 Kalendar
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker