When Patrick Mullins met Jack Kennedy: 'You could say I've been lucky - they're just broken bones and they heal'

This interview by Patrick Mullins with Jack Kennedy was first published in December 2021, nine months after the jockey had won the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Minella Indo, and has been republished on April 22 2024 to mark Kennedy's 25th birthday.

Kennedy is this season embroiled in a tight battle with defending champion Paul Townend as he chases his first jockeys' championship, and here he discusses his voracious appetite for winners and the injuries which have plagued his career.

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The email comes through from the Racing Post.

“Would you interview Jack Kennedy? We think you’d be in a unique position to empathise with his setback.”

Hmmm. Right.

I’ve never broken my right leg. Never rebroken my right leg. Never broken my left leg. Never broken my femur. Never broken my ribs. Never broken my shoulder. Never broken my toe. Collarbone, I’ve done that. Hmmm.

I don’t really know Jack other than to say "hi", "well done" or "hard luck" in the weighing room. I did sell him a pair of racing boots at the Dublin Racing Festival and didn’t get paid until Galway, so he either never carries cash or has a terrible memory.

I send him a text asking if he’d be interested in doing an interview but, if not, that I’ll tell the Post he’s busy. An hour later he replies, “Ya, no bother, whenever suits.” I invite him down to the yard to watch work and do the interview after, but he says he’ll meet me at the races on Sunday. I sit down to do some research the afternoon before as I’m not racing.

Jack Kennedy, 22 years old. Really? Yeah, April 1999. He’s like the opposite of Peter Pan. I don’t remember him being a kid; he’s just been a fully formed man-jockey for years now.

Rode his first winner one month after taking out the licence. Rode his first hurdle winner a week later for Gordon Elliott, went on to have a double. Rode his first chase winner in the Troytown, went on to have a treble. Rode out his claim in a year and a day. Rode his first Grade 1 winner aged 17 in the Lexus Chase in 2016 on Outlander, which was also his 100th winner. Rode his first Cheltenham winner on Labaik in the Supreme Novices’ in 2017, still aged 17. Rode four winners at Cheltenham in 2018 and was beaten by Davy Russell for leading jockey only on placings, aged 18. Became the youngest jockey to win the Gold Cup in 2021 on Minella Indo, aged 21, and rode three other winners that week.

Jack Kennedy, then 17, celebrates his first Cheltenham Festival win on Labaik in the 2017 Supreme Novices' HurdleCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

Kennedy has 363 winners, 22 Grade 1 winners and nine Cheltenham winners. He has also missed more than 500 days through injury. Jack is 22. I don’t know about you, but I feel I hadn’t really realised just what this guy has achieved.

I meet him in the jockeys’ waiting tent as we aren’t allowed to congregate in the weighing room in Ireland yet. It’s windy and cold. It’s Navan. The one heater in the corner is making more noise than heat. There’s a band playing nearby and the racecourse Tannoy is, as they all are for some bizarre reason, too loud.

He walks in quietly, with his arm in a sling. He’s the sort of guy who doesn’t really talk unless he thinks it’s going to improve on silence (there’s a reason we haven’t got to the actual interview yet). When he does talk, it’s with a drawl like a character in a Clint Eastwood film. Like Clint, he wears his heart where it should be, nowhere near his sleeve.

He sits down on the bench beside me, and Brian Hayes joins us. Bryan Cooper is asleep on a bench near the TV and Decky Lavery is on the phone to his girlfriend in the other corner.

PWM: I’ve been listening to you all the way up in the car, talking with Jane Mangan, Nick Luck and on Off The Ball, so basically it seems I’m going to ask you questions you’ve already been asked multiple times.

JWK: Right...I hope I didn’t tell any lies (chuckles, slowly).

PWM: Let’s start with the Gold Cup. Take me through the race. What did you think would happen, and what did happen? Did anything stand out in the race?

JWK: It was kinda simple enough really. I suppose I knew Frodon and Kemboy would be forward and Henry [de Bromhead] had said to me to be handy with them.

Hayes: He did not, did he? (laughs)

PWM: Surprise!

JWK: (smiles) They went a good gallop, so I just slotted in behind them, and he had said to make sure he had plenty of light at his fences, so I was in and out...I think it was Tom Scudamore on Black Op, he was kinda...getting in my way a little (laughs).

Hayes: Did you let a shout?

JWK: No. When he was in, I was out and when he’d come out, I’d go in. It was fairly simple really. Jumped great. I asked him at one or two and he’d put in another stride, so I just left him at it after that.

PWM: And you thought you got left in front a bit soon, you said?

Hayes: Winning jockeys always seem to say that.

JWK: Yeah, well, I suppose after what happened the year before, I had that in the back of my head but I didn’t want to be taking him back either as I was going fairly well. I was praying the same thing wouldn’t happen because he did prick his ears a little bit.

PWM: Was he idling?

JWK: He was and then Rachael [Blackmore] got to me and he just went on again (pause). No, it was great (said with no understatement at all...).

Gold Cup hero Jack Kennedy on Minella Indo (left) is congratulated by Rachael Blackmore on runner-up A Plus TardCredit: Edward Whitaker

PWM: And do you remember crossing the line, was there a thought that ran through your head?

JWK: I couldn’t believe it really. It was by far the best day I’d had anyway.

Hayes: And was it weird riding it for Henry and not Gordon? Because you do everything together but you win the biggest race for Henry, who you never ride for.

JWK: Yeah, it was, I suppose. It was my first winner for Henry.

PWM: (looking at Hayes and wondering who’s doing the interview here) And how did you get the ride?

JWK: Well, Delta Work was out after getting injured and Rachael had decided to ride A Plus Tard, so Henry rang me. I went down to school him. Then Venetia Williams rang Kevin O’Ryan about Royale Pagaille, but I’d already committed to Minella Indo by then.

PWM: And what about the rest of the week? You had four winners, do any of the others stand out?

JWK: Black Tears. I really enjoyed that one. It was her last run, win, lose or draw, and I was told to ride her to run well and it fell into place. Galvin won on the first day too and I went back to the hotel thinking it was going to be a serious week.

PWM: Was it weird being in the bubble at the hotel?

JWK: I enjoyed it. It was nice not to have to be talking to anyone (laughs). Then Envoi Allen fell (doesn’t laugh) (pause). He was very long and he came up out of my hands. He had done it at the second too. He was in my hands, he was keen, I was just struggling to get him to drop it. He had been tricky at home when he was a novice hurdler and Keith Donoghue had done a great job calming him down. But, sure, look, it was one of those things, and obviously I was deflated after it (said again with great understatement...). And I went out on Mount Ida, and she was favourite. It wasn’t really happening, probably if Envoi Allen hadn’t fallen I might have pulled her up, do you know? Not that I wasn’t going to give her a ride but it just wasn’t happening. It was just out of thickness that I kept going really and it worked out. Then I went to Friday thinking that Zanahiyr would win the Triumph.

Jack Kennedy walks back after his fall on Envoi Allen in the Marsh Novices' Chase at CheltenhamCredit: Edward Whitaker

PWM: You’d have ridden him over Quilixios anyway?

JWK: Yeah, yeah. No, I would have. From even before the two of them ran I’d preferred him. And I wasn’t in great form when he got beat. I remember Keith Donoghue was sitting down, and I was talking to him before I went out for the Gold Cup and I was in bad old form and he said, “It’s all right, lad, you’ll go out and win the Gold Cup now.” And I started laughing but lo and behold...

PWM: I think you can ride better when you’re in bad form sometimes.

JWK: Yeah, you maybe care less about some things.

PWM: Anything else about Cheltenham?

JWK: No, that was it really.

PWM: Did you do anything to celebrate?

JWK: No. Thurles the next day. Kinda fractured my collarbone off Felix Desjy! Fair old way to be brought back down to earth.

PWM: And you went and rode two winners at Aintree, including the Aintree Hurdle on Abacadabras, who you’d won the Morgiana on earlier in the season.

JWK: Yeah, sure he’s a fair horse, he just needs things to go right for him really. He’s a funny one.

PWM: Going back to Minella Indo, what was the story at Down Royal then?

JWK: Look, I obviously would have loved to have been riding Minella Indo after winning the Gold Cup on him. But I was going to have to be lucky to be able to ride him. I had to ride Gordon’s when he had one in it. Simple really.

PWM: Do you ever get sick of people asking you about being injured?

JWK: Ah, kinda yeah. Sure I suppose you sign up for it, don’t you.

PWM: Do you think you’ve been unlucky?

JWK: (slowly) Suppose you could say I have, but you could say I’ve been lucky too. They’ve just been broken bones and they heal so...(shrugs)

Jack Kennedy and Gordon Elliott after combining with yet another winner together at Navan this seasonCredit: Patrick McCann

PWM: What’s broken at the moment?

JWK: I’ve fractured and dislocated my shoulder. The fracture is nothing really, the dislocation is the trickier side of it. I’ll be back for Christmas, all being well.

PWM: Do you do anything different to prevent injury?

JWK: I take it day to day. I don’t think I was ever as strong and fit as I was before this injury, though.

PWM: Would you consider managing your rides?

JWK: Ah, sure if you ride good ones, you have to ride bad ones too.

Everyone I’d asked about what they’d like to know from Jack wanted to know about the mental resilience of coming back from injury repeatedly, and perhaps there are other deeper questions I should have asked him, but it’s very simple for him. He rides horses and he rides them well. If he gets injured, he’ll heal and he’ll come back and ride horses well again. That’s what you do when you’re a jockey. That’s how you think when you’re 22. The simplicity is the key.

What’s the alternative? Why overcomplicate it? I thank Jack and he and his sling get up and head out to watch the next race with Gordon and the crew. Ruby [Walsh] rings me on the way home about something, and I ask him about Jack.

“Jack...I always knew he was there in a race, like [Davy] Russell or [Barry] Geraghty, he’d be lying up against you, or putting you in a pocket.”

I don’t suppose there’s much else to say after that really, is there?

Members can read more exclusive feature by Patrick Mullins here:

Game on for the trainers' title - but I'm watching from afar as my National dreams are soon dashed 

Another incredible festival for us - but Cheltenham is different now 

I overreacted but I was angry - my take on the Gaelic Warrior controversy 

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