'I stood between Ted Walsh and Robert Hall, the angel and the devil on your shoulder' - Patrick Mullins meets Jane Mangan
I rode with Miss JM Mangan. She was intelligent (intimidatingly so), professional (intimidatingly so) and not majorly inclined towards making friends (at least on the racecourse). A speak-when-spoken-to kind of girl, but one who wasn’t afraid to say what she thought when she wanted to. Tomboy style and a lot of red hair. She’d have made a brilliant character in a film; Hermione Granger perhaps.
As a rider she was stylish, strong and tactically aware. But, for her own reasons, it was never going to be a career, just a hobby for a few years until she got a proper job.
She could have had a proper riding job but that wasn’t her plan, even when she won the GPT Handicap at Galway for Dermot Weld, even when she won the Grade 1 Punchestown Champion Bumper for David Pipe, even when Gigginstown were using her in prestigious handicaps. Great fun, but not what she wanted. Being a jockey isn’t really a grown-up job I suppose, and Jane was always very grown up.
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- 'I've never paid six figures for a horse and never will - I learned pretty quickly you're only one phone call away from f*** all'
- 'I’ve trained some fabulous horses, worked with some excellent riders - maybe I have brought a little bit of talent to the table as well'
- ‘When you’re in the moment and you’re starved, you’re ready to explode - everything built up and I just lost my s**t’
- 'He must have his breakfast earlier than Willie does' - Patrick Mullins goes behind enemy lines at Gordon Elliott's yard
- 'You can see why people end up struggling - when you're trying to pay the electric bill, losing one ride can be massive'
- 'I've never paid six figures for a horse and never will - I learned pretty quickly you're only one phone call away from f*** all'
- 'I’ve trained some fabulous horses, worked with some excellent riders - maybe I have brought a little bit of talent to the table as well'
- ‘When you’re in the moment and you’re starved, you’re ready to explode - everything built up and I just lost my s**t’
- 'He must have his breakfast earlier than Willie does' - Patrick Mullins goes behind enemy lines at Gordon Elliott's yard