Some sportsmen explode precociously into the headlines — and disappear as quickly. Some, while respected by their peers, have to graft their way through the tack-on paragraphs and body copy before they win recognition. If you had looked up Shane Kelly on the internet a few months ago, you would probably have had to be content with references to a sultry-voiced American soul-singer or an Australian Olympic cyclist. As he swung into the saddle aboard Amanda Perrett’s Pagan Crest for the first at Newmarket on Saturday, I was reflecting that, if you had sought odds at the start of the season on the 26-year-old jockey from Leitrim who shares that name riding 100 winners this season, you would have been generously accommodated. But there must be every possibility that Shane Kelly will make the next target in his career, which is now on the cusp between that of the journeyman jockey and the well-rewarded top flight of riders.
S.W. Kelly, as he usually appears in the racing programmes, had his own ponies at home in Ireland. At 15 he went to apprentice school, the same one as big-race specialist Johnny Murtagh and championship-challenging Robert Winston. He rode out for Frances Crowley and John Oxx, and in 1997 he was Ireland’s champion apprentice. But then came the lean period which so often follows the loss of those riding allowances. Shane broke an ankle badly and was off for three months. His weight increased and suddenly it was hard-going.
Mentored by Barney Curley, the gambler and trainer whose quiet acts of kindness never attract the same notice as his public dust-ups and who has pointed many a young rider in the right direction, he came to try his luck in England in 2001, getting opportunities with the likes of Jamie Osborne and William Haggas.
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