Leahy enjoys a Party with the President 

Riding at the Punchestown Festival seemed a long way away as 22-year-old Old Leighlin jockey Adam Leahy lay on the flat of his back in the parade ring at Naas Racecourse on 16 December last year with his horse, Party President on top of him.

In the blink of an eye after sitting on his back, the Tony Mullins trained horse made sure the young jockey made an early departure long before he got near the track.

Leahy had broken his hip and a bone in his leg and needed extensive work done during a stay in Tallaght Hospital.

“I was getting up on to him in the parade and I was only on him about three seconds when he reared up and flipped over, he can be a very highly strung horse, and he landed on top of me and broke my hip and my femur. I was in Tallaght Hospital for three days and needed to have surgery on my hip and my leg. I got a plate and five screws into my hop and another bit of surgery on my leg,” said Leahy.

Incredibly, the tough as old boots jockey was back riding in a point-to-point exactly three months later but this story got even more remarkable when he was back on Party President at Naas in early April.

“I had rode him for a piece of work a week before that and that was the only other time I sat on him but I’ve had that horse since he was three years old, I know him inside out and I know him better than anybody else so I wasn’t really that worried.

“He walking around literally on his hind legs so I was a small bit worried that he might rear up the same way as the day I fell off but in fairness, we had a bit of military operation to make sure nothing happened. It all worked well.” 

That’s an understatement.

The horse only went and won with Leahy on his back with his mother Imelda, herself a former jockey, was among the shrew punters who took the early price of 28/1. It was Leahy's first ever win under rules.

The story moved into the realms of fairytale when the duo paired up again two weeks later in Clonmel and once more found themselves in the winner’s enclosure.

“Two unbelievable days,” laughed Leahy.

“You could have said the first day was a bit of a fluke but he backed it up the second day.

“We expected him to run well the first day but we thought fitness might catch him out but it worked out that it didn’t. We knew he’d definitely improve after that first race. He showed that at Clonmel because he won pretty easy.

“It’s been a bit bittersweet with him I suppose but more sweet to be fair, he’s given me a couple of great days,” said Leahy.

Being a jockey is all that Leahy wanted to be after spending his life around horses and he’s done the hard yards working in the yards around the county before turning professional this week.

“My mam was a jockey before she was a solicitor. I’m from Old Leighlin and worked in Willie Mullins’ for two years when I left school. I worked in Shark Hanlon’s and Joseph O’Brien’s, so I’ve been in a good few places. I was in Nick Goff’s down in Wexford for my last two years. I was born and reared with horses really.

“I had about 100 point to point rides and about 20 on the track and I three point to point winners but they were my first winners under rules,” he said.

Leahy lines up in the Bumper on the first day of the Punchestown Festival on a horse trained by Oliver McKiernan called All For Broke. It’s a race that he has rode in before but that was during Covid in front of empty stands, this will be a different story altogether.

“I rode in the same bumper for Shark a few years ago at Punchestown but it was during Covid and there was no crowd there so this will be much different. It will be a much bigger buzz in front of a crowd,” said Leahy.

The horse is a massive outsider but Leahy is on such a roll at the moment that you never know your luck.

No matter what happens on Tuesday, he’s looking forward to a busy summer.

“I’ll spread myself around a bit through the summer and hope to get a few rides,” said Leahy, who admitted that riding at the Cheltenham Festival would be the dream.

“Cheltenham would be unbelievable,” he said.

No matter what he does in the rest of his career, he’ll never forget the horse called Party President.