Colin keane chasing five more winners for record

Trim jockey Colin Keane needs five more winners this season to break a record set in 2011 year by Joseph O'Brien and bring that particular accolade back to Meath.

Already assured to win the champion apprentice jockey title, Keane needs just five wins from six race meetings to break the record number of wins by an apprentice in a season.

The record is currently held by Joseph O’Brien who tallied 57 wins in 2011 to beat Raymond Carroll’s 52 wins set in 1976. Raymond Carroll is the son of the late Frankie Carroll from Kildalkey, so if Colin Keane succeeds he will be bringing the record back to the Royal County.  

 

Colin, son of trainer Gerry Keane rose through the ranks from pony racing, riding over 100 winners in five years. He applied for his apprentice licence in 2010 at the age of 16 and this year secured, as he put it, his 'dream job’ with trainer Ger Lyons.

His original plan was to move to England to further his career but such is the success of his partnership with Kiltale trainer Ger Lyons that he was named stable jockey this year despite still only being an apprentice.

To date, Ger Lyons has 46 winners and Keane is only four from the record at 53. Notable winners for the pair this season include stakes winners Convergence, Annippe and Brendan Bracken.

Keane came close to snatching the apprentice title last year when he fell three winners short of the winning mark set by Connor King. This season he has been in irresistible form and currently holds a 23-win lead over his nearest pursuer. His current tally of 53 is enough to put him fourth in the overall jockey standing which is an outstanding achievement for an apprentice.

There are still six meetings remaining which give the Meath man an excellent opportunity to break the record.

His next opportunity will come at Dundalk tonight where he has seven rides.

“I’d be over the moon to beat the record. It’s brilliant just to know that I’m going to be champion apprentice. It could go either way though. Even if I get four winners and equal the record I’d be delighted,but hopefully I won’t come up just short of that” commented Colin Keane.

 TONIGHT'S RIDES

5.30: Sacrificial 

6.05: Bairns At Bay

7.10: Maontri

7.40: Toccata Blue

8.10: Obliterator

8.40: Horsewithnoname

9.10: Manorov

Colin Keane was nominated as the January winner in the Meath Chronicle / Cusack Hotel Group Sportsperson of the Year awards. That nomination was achieved for three successive wins at Dundalk on Maontri which he partners tonight in 7.10 race.