And photographs, if you have any.
Horseytalk.net Special Interview
Alan Daly
A jockey to set the house on fire.
There is not a jockey in the world like Alan Daly.
He is an amateur boxer. Out of 18 fights he was only beaten twice. He won the Stable Lads Boxing Championships four-years running from 1993 to 1996.
He has ridden for all the big owners. Including Sheikh Mohammed,
He has knotched up over 200 winners out of over 3,500 rides beating legendary, champion jockeys such as Lester Piggott, Pat Eddery and Frankie Dettori in the process.
Alan Daly. The champion boxer being
congratulated
by Irish boxing champion, Barry McGuigan >>
He has won over £1 million in prize-money for lucky owners.
In his time, he was one of the highest paid journey man jockeys in the country.
As if that’s not enough, he has stacked shelves at
Asda in Swindon.
He has been a lorry driver, a builder, a
painter and decorator, a furniture removal man.
He can even
drive a massive combine harvester.
He has been a race commentator for the Racing Channel.
He
has been featured on Through The Keyhole with Lloyd Grossman.
He has even appeared on the top people’s quiz show,
QI, admittedly as part of the back-drop - but not many jockeys
can even say that.
On March 18 2009, however, he retired at the tender age of 35 with a spectacular flying Frankie Dettori leap after winning his last race at Lingfield racecourse.
What is he doing now?
He is a fireman at Cobham Fire Station in Surrey.
“I love it,” he says, “I love it. I just love it.”
But, he admits, he still keeps all his favourite racing photos in his iPhone. He also goes riding whenever he can. His last outing was a hunting trip in Co Clare.
<< Alan Daly receiving his award
Even though he is unmarried, doesn’t smoke, doesn’t drink, doesn’t gamble and perhaps, not surprisingly, owns five houses, Alan – or Arthur as he is known in racing circles - is not, you may have guessed, a shy, quiet, nervous little wall-flower. Wherever he goes, he’s the life and soul of the party. Or, as the Irish say, “He’s your man.”
However, being a fireman, he says, has dramatically changed his life
When he was a jockey he lived off one meal a day: usually beans-on-toast or a salad. Some days he would eat nothing. Once a month, he would have a Sunday roast. He weighed 8 stone 5 lbs.
Today, he eats proper food. He has two meals a day, breakfast and dinner, and is 2 ½ stone heavier.
“Within a week of stopping racing, I put on a stone. Just like that,” he says.
He has also just been awarded the prestigious Griffin Richard Davis Achievement Award, which goes to the jockey or former jockey judged to have achieved the most in developing a second career over the past year. The Awards were established by The Jockeys Employment and Training Scheme in memory of the late Richard Davis who had started planning for his future before he had a fatal race fall in 1996
Alan or rather, Arthur, however, does not come from a racing family. Born in Navan, Co. Meath, his father, Brian, is a farmer. His mother, Pauline, had ponies when she was a child.
Alan
Daly. The early years
Before he was eight-years-old, however, he was sitting on a donkey, Neddy.
After Neddy, came Curly.
“Glory be to God,” he says. “After a month,
I managed to stay on him.”
A year later, came Topsy.
“Jesus,” he says. “She came with a reputation. Ten different families it was that had her before we had her. She kept burying all the kids. But I managed her. We were both mad, I tell ye. How she could jump. You’d never believe it. She would also go like a house on fire. You just had to hang on for dear life. She’s the one who taught me how to ride. She was. ‘Tis true.”
At 12, a friend asked him if he would like to ride his pony, Fred.
“A pony,” says Alan/Arthur . “It-was-a-racehorse.
I’m telling ye, the first time I got on his back, he
ran away with me and jumped a six-foot gate. YAAAoooooooooooooooooow.
I thought , Racing is for me. I kept him for a year. We did
everything. We went everywhere. I was hooked. I was
mad for it.
This was the life for me.
“My father then met someone in a pub. He told him about this racing school in Kildare. I left school. I was only 13. I went to the Racing School for a one-year course. They taught me everything. They even sent me to the famous Irish Military School where they had ex-Olympic showjumpers. They taught me how to show-jump. But still more than anything, I wanted to race.”
From the racing school, Alan/Arthur went to work for an Irish trainer. He was there six-months.
He came to England. He spent two-years with Jack Berry, a famous racehorse trainer in Lancaster. It was while he was there he had his first race on the flat at Edinburgh. He fell off. He got concussed and spent two-days walking around like a zombie
Alan Daly's 200th Winner - Naughty
Thoughts
“Welcome to the racing world,” he laughs.
From then on he worked for a string of owners:
- - Paul Cole, Lambourn. He had six rides
- - Bill Turner, Wincanton. He landed his first winner at Warwick
- - Kuwait. He was there for four months over the winter and knotched up six winners
- - Simon Dow, Epsom. He not only landed a ride in the Apprentice Derby, he also landed 18 winners.
Alan Daly's 200th Winner - Naughty Thoughts >>
“I was flying,” says Alan/ Arthur.
Over the next 14-years he rode at every flat race course in the country as well as on the jumps course at Haydock Park.
He rode against every jockey you can
think of.
Among them:
- Lester Piggott - “I rode against him at Haydock Park. We were next to each other in the stalls. He told me to pull my goggles down.”.”
- Pat Eddery
- Frankie Dettori. - “He’s a real gentleman. He is the best thing to have happened to racing. I beat him at Newbury. I was riding Tin for John Sperry.”
He also had no end of breaks. He broke his left hand twice,
his right arm once, his left leg twice, his ribs four times
and he was concussed, he says, eight or nine times.
<< Alan Daly on Global Dancer. Derby Day 1995
But he was pushing himself to the limit. If not passed the
limit. He was working 350 days a year, travelling over 50,000
miles a year. Every three-years he had to get a new
car. In 2002, for example, he ran the London Marathon
in 3 hours 1 minute 20 seconds. That evening he went to the
Jockey Awards at the London Hilton wearing the regulation
tuxedo and his running shoes. His feet had swollen up so
much during the race, if he could get them off
he certainly couldn’t get his dancing shoes on. But
that didn’t stop him. He danced until 3 o’clock
in the morning, went home, had three hours sleep, drove
to Southwell racecourse, was there by 10 am, sat in
a sauna for three hours to get rid of all the liquid
he had taken on during the Marathon and then rode in six
races.
The highlights of his racing career, he reels off like a bookie calling the odds at Navan racecourse.
“Derby Day. 1995. I rode in the Apprentice Derby straight
after the Derby. I was riding Global Dancer. I won. It was
my fifth win in this country. But it was the win that really
launched my career.
“Newbury. 2002. I was riding Chin Chin for trainer, Marcus Tregoning. It was my first race after I’d broken a leg coming out of the stalls at Wolverhampton.
“Lingfield. March 3 2009. It was my last race. It was an ordinary race. Nothing special. I was on Desert Dreamer, trained by Tom Dascombe. I came first.”
Alan Daly on Global Dancer. Derby Day 1995>>
So what made him give up racing to become a fireman?
“I got tired of starving myself, day in, day out,” he says. “I had the opportunities. But I wasn’t getting enough opportunities. You can make money riding Henry Cecil’s Grade One horses. But you can’t make money riding the horses I was riding.
“I always thought there was life outside the weighing room. I wanted to experience it. Lots of jockeys don’t know what goes on in the outside world. When they are forced to retire they don’t know what to do. I didn’t want to be like that. I wanted to plan my retirement”
But knowing when to retire is a problem for jockeys. Out of 100 apprentices, 50-per-cent drop out within 12-months of starting. Less than 20-per-cent are still riding when they are 50-years-old.
Says Alan/Arthur, “I just suddenly had this,
It-ain’t-fun-any-more moment. I spent four-years
planning my retirement before I retired. I didn’t even
tell my agent what I was doing. I told my parents. They were
right behind me. Everything I’ve done has been a credit
to them”
<< Alan Daly. His last ride,
Desert Dreamer, which
came in first. Lingfield Park. March 18 2009
Does he miss it?
“To be honest, I don’t miss anything. I never thought I’d say that. But it’s true. Being a fireman ticks all the boxes. I get the same excitement fire-fighting as I got riding winners. As soon as I hear the bells go, it’s like jumping out of the stalls. It’s the same excitement, the same adrenalin rush. You never know where you’re going. You never know what you’re going to be asked to do. It’s also good because you know you’ve made a difference, you’ve helped somebody. It’s the best job in the world.
“And, of course, it’s less risky. I don’t know why more jockeys don’t become firemen. They’d love it.”
But then the fire service probably couldn’t handle too many jockeys or rather ex-jockeys like Alan or rather, Arthur Daly, who would set the house on fire.
Alan
Dayly. Fireman. In action.