Sport is littered with irreplaceable figures that were replaced. Back in the day, Liverpool agonised about losing Kevin Keegan until Kenny Dalglish came along. DJ Carey was incomparable until Henry Shefflin took over as Kilkenny hurling’s talisman. Aaron Rodgers made stepping in for Brett Favre look easy. Jockey Darragh O’Keeffe has pulled off a similar feat.
Rachael Blackmore is an impossible act for anyone to follow fully since her pioneering impact as the woman who shattered racing’s glass ceiling will always be unique. But from a purely professional point of view, her retirement in May left a vacancy as number one rider to Henry de Bromhead’s powerful team.
In the business of getting one horse to the finishing post in front of the rest it’s one of the most prized jobs in racing. Blackmore’s helpfully low-profile instincts haven’t hurt, but it’s remarkable how seamlessly O’Keeffe has taken over the role, to the extent that the presence of a new name at the top of racing’s pecking order is barely remarked upon.
The 25-year-old from the heart of steeplechase country in Doneraile in north Cork goes into the Christmas racing action as the country’s leading rider. He has had 69 winners this season, already the best tally of his career. It is six winners more than Jack Kennedy and it’s 28 back to the reigning champion, Paul Townend. Almost €1.2 million in prizemoney is in the bag.
READ MORE
Blackmore’s public impact was singular. But in terms of banging in winners, O’Keeffe hasn’t missed a beat and that impact will be stamped all over the holiday action. July Flower’s name is unseasonal, but the mare lining up for Grade One glory in today’s Leopardstown’s feature, the Racing Post Novice Chase, is just one of a powerful de Bromhead team that’s ready to go.
Over the coming four days de Bromhead’s runners will be dispersed throughout Leopardstown and Limerick. O’Keeffe has the pick of them. It is not entirely new territory. When Blackmore’s serious neck injury ruled her out for the three months before last Christmas O’Keeffe made filling in for her seem routine. Now the segue is permanent and remarkably unremarkable.
It isn’t always so in racing. Jamie Spencer famously stepped into the job as Aidan O’Brien’s number one rider in 2004. At 24, he had landed perhaps the most coveted role in world racing. By the end of the year he’d packed his bags and left. The public glare can be harsh when things don’t go right for a rider.
Top English trainer Paul Nicholls has gone through his share of jockeys, sometimes in circumstances that smacked of the rider always being the easiest to blame when things go wrong. De Bromhead has a reputation too for a low tolerance level when it comes to errors in the saddle. O’Keeffe hasn’t given him any.
“You’re so busy going racing that it all just happened naturally, I had a couple of stints when Rachael was injured so it was similar to that, and trying not to think too much about it and just go out and ride the horses and get the results,” the rider says. Such decisiveness has always been reflected in his riding.
It’s five years since O’Keeffe got a superb “spare” on A Plus Tard in Leopardstown’s Savills Chase. He produced a Ride of the Year spin on the subsequent Gold Cup hero. It was a first Grade One success. It came just weeks after a first victory at Cheltenham on Chatham Street Lad. In 2023 there was a first Cheltenham Festival success on Maskada. There have been two more Grade Ones in 2025, including on Blackmore’s old ally Envoi Allen last month.
That kind of resolve characterises O’Keeffe’s attitude towards the very modern variation on flak jockeys are always open to. He’s on social media, but is clear-eyed about criticism that appears on it.
“We would often get messages on Instagram or Facebook; someone that’s after backing a horse that might be unhappy. But I wouldn’t lose a good night’s sleep over it.
“A lot of jockeys get messages, especially if you ride a favourite that gets beat or falls, you’d have some unhappy person in the world that might have backed you, losing a fiver or something like that; but it makes no odds to me. I wouldn’t be one to get sucked up into that,” he says.
O’Keeffe is similarly hardheaded about his chances this season of achieving the ultimate dream of being champion jockey. The title is one of the few gaps on his predecessor’s CV. Kennedy is closing in and Townend will have the might of Willie Mullins’s team to help him once it cranks into top gear. In a notoriously precarious sport, though, both are playing catch up.
“The two lads have a lot of firepower there with Willie and Gordon [Elliott]. Both of them trainers would have the guts of 300 horses apiece.
“I get plenty outside rides as well but at this time of year it’s hard when the racing is so good with maiden hurdles and beginners chases that it’s hard to ride winners for anyone else. The big guns are winning most of the races. It will be tough.
“I’m delighted with my season so far. It’s the best season I’ve had numbers wise so hopefully it’s not finished yet and we can have a good Christmas period and kick on into the Spring,” he comments.
Already having to have an eye on the Spring – even before the Christmas action has started – is part of the remorseless nature of riding at the very top level. One woman’s retirement has turned into one man’s opportunity to find out for himself what it’s like. Darragh O’Keeffe gives every sign of continuing to make the most of it.
