Ray Cochrane: 'I gave him so much abuse, then had to defend him in the inquiry!'

Were you always going to be a jockey?
I started riding horses by dropping out of an apple tree on to the back of a cart horse and riding it back to its field, and I always wanted to be a rider from there on in. I was taught to ride properly at a riding school and became an instructor when I was quite young. I progressed from there to being a jockey.

What was your first job in racing?
I moved to England from Northern Ireland when I was 14 and a half and was apprentice to Barry Hills. I didn't move over to England to be a stable lad – the ambition was to be a jockey and I wanted to go for what I could achieve. I was with Barry for five years and got on some nice horses.

What was your big break?
I always thought about being a jump jockey and, as my weight went up, I was heading that way. I left Barry's and my first ride over hurdles won but I was only fiddling about and thought if I'm going to make a career jumping why not go and learn from proper people, so I approached Fred Winter for a job. He said you can come and work here but you will not be having any rides and you will not be doing any schooling. I thought that would do me for a season and from day one I loved it; it was the best job I ever had in racing. After a season with Fred I joined Kim Bailey, who had just set up, but he really wanted me to be head lad and I wasn't happy about that, so my big break came when I moved on to Newmarket and joined Ron Sheather, who had a handful of jumpers among his Flat string.