Wayne Lordan

Lake Victoria moved a little to her left when the stalls opened, but she was quickly into her racing rhythm and her rider took her back, got her settled nicely in behind horses.

Only five runners in the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes, but there was a good pace on, and Wayne Lordan was happy to bide his time. The furlong markers went past, six, five, four, and still he and Lake Victoria sat in, fifth of the five runners, along the inside rail and under cover. They passed the junction of the courses, three furlongs to go, and he began to angle out. There wasn’t a whole lot of room among horses. Just four rivals but they were tight, squeezed up like a vacuum pack. There wasn’t a lot to be gained by going through traffic, so he moved towards the outside, dropped back a half a length in order to get into clear sailing. And he squeezed.

He didn’t go for push-button. There was still lots of time. Twenty-five or 30 seconds is an age in a seven-furlong race. He knew that the pace had been strong and he knew that his filly had a turn of foot. He angled towards the outside and pressed gently on the accelerator. No need to go to the floor yet, but he could feel the energy, he sensed that the surge would be there when he would need it.

Everything else that was happening in the race was happening to his right. Bedtime Story was coming under a ride from Ryan Moore, but she wasn’t going clear. Simmering was still there, two horses away to his right. You can see them out of the corner of your eye, Dylan Browne McMonagle rowing away in the silver Al Shaqab silks, Declan McDonogh to his immediate right on Exactly, just over a length in front of him but well within range.

Just over a furlong to go, and Wayne Lordan got lower in the saddle. As he did, he could feel his filly pick up. Gradually, she took herself up level with Exactly, who was just about level with the other three fillies. With 150 yards to run, there was hardly a head or a neck between all five fillies in the 2024 Moyglare Stud Stakes, stretched from the inside rail to the centre of the track, within about six horse-widths of each other, but Lake Victoria and Wayne Lordan had momentum on their side. They went forward. Surge. They hit the front. A head up, a neck up, a half a length up. By the time she got to the winning line, Aidan O’Brien’s filly had put over a length between herself and her rivals. Wayne Lordan stood up in his irons and relaxed: job done.

***

Wayne Lordan is in reflective mood.

“She was a lovely ride to have in the Moyglare,” he is saying. “She’s a very good filly, she had won her previous two. It’s tough to get rides in Group 1 races, so to be going into the Moyglare with a filly like her, knowing that you had a real chance. That’s a good feeling.”

Things fell into place. Bedtime Story had had the Moyglare on her radar for a little while, and it was always likely that, all things being equal, the Ballydoyle number one filly for the race, Ryan Moore would ride her. There was a chance that Lake Victoria would run in the Cheveley Park Stakes today instead (and not as well) but, when she was set for the Moyglare, it was always likely that Wayne Lordan would ride her.

“I had never ridden her in a race before,” says the rider, “but I had ridden her on a few occasions at home. I just wanted to get her to relax early in the race, leave her finish off well. She’s good to quicken. She was impressive, she hit the line well. It was brilliant to win another Group 1 race. It makes your year.”

You go where you are needed. Like, when Lake Victoria won the Group 3 Sweet Solera Stakes at Newmarket last month, it was Phoenix Stakes day at The Curragh. Big day. Ryan Moore was obviously at The Curragh. Wayne Lordan could have gone to Newmarket, but he was needed too at The Curragh. He finished second in the seven-furlong two-year-old maiden on Acapulco Bay, behind Ryan Moore on the better-fancied Delacroix, and he finished second in the six-furlong two-year-old maiden on Monumental, behind Ryan Moore on stable companion Ides Of March.

“I’m very happy to go wherever I’m needed,” he says. “The two-year-olds I rode at The Curragh that day, they were both nice horses, they both went there with chances and they both ran well. It was great that Lake Victoria won at Newmarket, but you can’t be everywhere. I was needed at The Curragh, so I was delighted to be there.”

When you are riding for Aidan O’Brien though, you are going to get big chances in big races. And, when you get those chances, you make the most of them. Like, in the Railway Stakes at The Curragh on Irish Derby day, there were two Ballydoyle runners, both maiden winners. Ryan Moore rode the better fancied of the two, Turnbridge Wells, Wayne Lordan rode Henri Matisse, and it was Henri Matisse who stayed on best of all to win nicely.

“We always thought that Henri Matisse was a good horse,” says Wayne. “He was just progressing away. On the day, he stepped up.”

***

Wayne Lordan was 12 years old when Tom Busteed called Wayne’s dad and asked him if Wayne could go into David Wachman’s to help out for a week. It was just a temporary thing, some of the staff were on holidays or out sick, and they just needed a little bit of a dig out. Wayne went into David Wachman’s for a week and stayed for two.

By then, everything else was second to horses and racing in the young lad’s mind. His dad had ridden as an amateur, he had ridden for John Oxx Senior, and there were always horses around at home in Upton in County Cork. Horses were king for young Wayne, and he started riding on the pony racing circuit when he was nine.

“Pony racing gives a young fellow great experience,” he says. “You learn so much.”

It was all that his parents could do to keep him in school until he was 14, but there comes a point at which you just can’t keep your finger in the dam any longer. Wayne’s dad was good friends with Thomond O’Mara, there was a place for him there, and eventually his parents let him go.

“That was some culture shock!”

No mobile phones, no Facetime, no Zoom calls. No email even. Bansha in County Tipperary is only an hour and a half up the road from Upton, but it didn’t really matter how far away it was for a 14-and-a-half-year-old who was moving out of home for the first time.

“Thomond and Róisín were brilliant to me though. They made me feel at home. And Thomond gave me lots of opportunities.”

The first of those opportunities was on Sea Leopard in a handicap at Cork in April 1998, and the young jockey was on his way.

“I was very light,” says Wayne. “Around six and a half stone. I could claim 10lb off 7st 10lb.”

More opportunities followed and he took them. He rode Ethbaat to victory in a handicap at Killarney that July and he kicked on. Thomond O’Mara was friendly with the Stacks, and it was through that connection that Lordan started riding out with Tommy and Fozzy, two days a week, sometimes three. He won the Flame Of Tara Stakes on Kanisfluh, he won the Irish Lincoln on Tolpuddle, he won the Heritage Stakes on Tolpuddle, he won the Amethyst Stakes on Tolpuddle.

The connection with David Wachman was re-formed, and that opened up a whole new vista. Danehill Music and Rabatash and Luas Line and Absolutelyfabulous and Anna Karenina. He had the pick of the Stack and the Wachman yards. It was a brilliant position for a young rider to be in.

“David and Tommy and Fozzy were all very fair to me,” says Wayne now. “Everybody knew where we were all coming from. There was a great understanding there, and that’s why the arrangement lasted so long.”

In May 2010, Eddie Lynam asked Wayne if he could ride Sole Power in the Palace House Stakes at Newmarket, and they finished fourth. Three runs and three and a half months later, and Eddie Lynam asked him if he would ride Sole Power again in the Nunthorpe Stakes at York. He was a 100/1 shot, but, turns out, he had a better chance than that.

“That was special, a first Group 1 win. I was only used to watching Group 1 races in the telly.”

More Group 1 wins followed: Sudirman for David Wachman in the Phoenix Stakes, Slade Power for Eddie Lynam and the Powers in the Diamond Jubilee and the July Cup, Legatissimo for David Wachman in the Nassau Stakes and the Matron Stakes. At the end of 2016, when David Wachman stopped training, Lordan moved to Aidan O’Brien’s, and the transition was seamless.

“I was very lucky to be offered the opportunity to go to Ballydoyle,” he says, “and, when you are presented with an offer like that, you have to take it seriously.”

It was testament to Lordan’s talent and to his work ethic that he was offered a role with the perennial champion trainer, and more Group 1 wins followed, Winter and Hydrangea and Hermosa and Magical. And the Joseph O’Brien-trained Iridessa. Lordan rode the Ruler Of The World filly to four Group/Grade 1 wins, a Fillies’ Mile and a Pretty Polly Stakes and Matron Stakes, her racing career culminating in victory in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf at Santa Anita in 2019.

“She was a special filly,” he says. “I enjoyed riding her every time I rode her. She always gave her all.”

Of course, the injuries have come and gone too. They are part of a jockey’s lot. Last summer, he had that awful fall in the Irish Derby, when the sadly ill-fated San Antonio came down, firing his hapless rider into the ground. He fractured both his legs and his elbow, he suffered a laceration to his arm and he was knocked out.

Recovery was slow and it was laborious, but the ultimate destination was well worth the journey. Lordan was back riding out on 2^nd January, and he was back race-riding in late February. And with Seamie Heffernan going freelance this season, there were always going to be big opportunities for him at Ballydoyle.

“I was eager to get going again,” he says. “I was really looking forward to getting back. I’m in a very lucky position, I have good people around me, my wife Carey Ann, my agent Ryan McElligott. And it’s a great team effort at Ballydoyle, we all have the horses that we ride out, and we’re all in it together. There are very good people in there, and we’re all pulling in the one direction.”

That direction leads Wayne Lordan to The Curragh this afternoon, to ride Trinity College in the Group 2 Beresford Stakes. Because that’s where he is needed.

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