Race day to raise money for injured jockeys

A TOTAL of 14 riders are preparing for the hugely exciting Corinthian Challenge Series that is taking place at Leopardstown Racecourset omorrow (Sunday, October 22).

The last leg of the series, which raises money for the Irish Injured Jockeys charity, moves to the Southside racetrack following two hotly contested races at the Curragh and Gowran Park in July and September.

The increased field of 14 riders will be competing on Killavullan Stakes Day, one of the course’s biggest flat events of the season.

Last year’s winner of the third leg of the Corinthian Challenge at Leopardstown was Sheikh Fahad Al Thani, who managed to get a start out of Labaik from Gordon Elliot’s yard.

Sheikh Fahad will return once again this year, and this will be his first race in the series after being ruled out of the opening two races thanks to an injury he picked up when falling from a horse in the UK.

Each rider has been tasked with raising €10,000 themselves for Irish Injured Jockeys, which all goes towards the charity in Ireland.

The final leg of the challenge will see 14 riders competing at the famed Leopardstown track.

Kildare rider Lynne McLoughlin is heading into the final leg of the Corinthian Challenge with a seven-point advantage at the top of the leaderboard as she looks to secure the title at Leopardstown. 

Lynne, who is a work rider at hugely successful trainer Jessica Harrington’s yard, won the opening race of the Corinthian Challenge at the Curragh on Nearly Famous.

She followed that up with a second-place finish at Gowran Park on the same horse.

Having returned from Australia in March, Lynne has been busy riding out for a trainer who she began working for when she was just 15. 

“Since I started riding out racehorses I always wanted the chance to ride in a race,” Lynne said before the series. 

“The Corinthian Challenge has enabled me to not only ride in one race, but three races at three of Ireland’s best racetracks.

“Not only will I achieve my goal of being able to race ride, but I will also get to raise funds for Irish Injured Jockeys, an unbelievable charity that means a lot to me as I have many friends who are jockeys and unfortunately they face the inevitability of falls throughout their career.”

Coming in second place on 10 points is Cork native Killian McCarthy, who is riding in the Corinthian Challenge series for the second year running.

Killian will have grand designs on winning the final race after picking up a win on board Water Sprite at Gowran Park.

Coming in third in the standings with eight points is Louth jockey Paddy Woods.

Paddy’s childhood revolved around horses and he worked as an apprentice jockey at the RACE academy before going on to complete the Stud Management Course at the National Stud in Kildare.

Paddy got his amateur licence after returning to horse riding and has competed in numerous charity races since, including the Mongol Derby, the world’s longest horse race that stretches over 1,000 kilometres of the Mongolian landscape. 

Speaking ahead of the finale in Leopardstown, Michael Higgins, General Manager of Irish Injured Jockeys, said: “We have been delighted with the reaction to the Corinthian Challenge once again this year and it has been just as exciting as our first challenge last year.

“Lynne McLoughlin has shown that she has learned plenty from her experiences with Jessica Harrington, while all of the other jockeys have also looked entirely comfortable in the saddle.

“Irish Injured Jockeys is such an important resource for those who are dealing with injuries suffered while competing in the sport.”

, and we aim to help each one of them as much as we can. The support the public has given us from the time we were established in 2014 has been immense.”