Joey Sheridan
Joey Sheridan came in after riding work last Sunday and checked the declarations. Joseph O’Brien had seven horses entered in the Ascot Stakes on the first day of Royal Ascot on Tuesday, so there was a chance that he would be riding one of them. He saw his name down beside Kizlyar, then he went to Cork on Sunday afternoon and rode Sarahmae to win the five-furlong handicap.
He had never ridden Kizlyar before in a race, but he had ridden him plenty at home, so he knew him well even before Sunday. Grand, straightforward horse, he says. Great attitude. Likes to go forward in his races.
The weigh room at Ascot was new, but the track was the same. It’s Royal Ascot of course, all the pageantry, and it’s tough and competitive, top-class racing, but you ride your race, he tells you, you ride your horse, and that’s the same as it always is.
“Joseph had a quick chat with me and Dylan (Browne McMonagle) at the scales,” says the rider. “I’m sure he spoke to the other lads too. It’s brilliant riding for Joseph. He mainly leaves it up to you. He’s the very same, Ascot or Roscommon, it doesn't matter. He describes the race as he sees it, he knows the form inside out, he tells you what he thinks of your horse, where you might try to be in the race. After that, it’s up to you.”
Kizlyar was out smartly from stall six, and his rider gave him a squeeze. His plan was to sit handy, and he wouldn't have minded leading, if he could get onto the front end easily enough.
“Cieren Fallon was intent on leading (on Lavender Hill Mob), so I was happy to sit behind him. I was able to get a lovely position, out and one back, which was ideal. The pace was good, but I was happy that we weren’t going too fast, I was happy with my position.”
He retained that position for two and a quarter miles. Down Ascot’s home straight first time and past the stands and turn to your right. Down into Swinley Bottom and up out of Swinley Bottom and down the side of the track and start around the home turn. Still fourth, one out and one back, two horses in front of him, one horse on his inside.
“I was happy the whole way,” he says. “Five furlongs out, four furlongs out, three furlongs out. I was able to get a good fill into my horse on the run up the side of the track. I was confident that he would stay, but I sat for as long as I could. I know how tough Defiantly is. He doesn't do anything in a hurry, but he’s tough and he’s a strong stayer.”
Defiantly moved on in front of him as they rounded the home turn and Lavender Hill Mob weakened, and Sheridan gave his horse a squeeze. Kizlyar moved up on the outside of his stable companion, apparently travelling better, and he hit the front on the run to the furlong marker.
“It felt that I would go on and win easily at the furlong pole, but Defiantly is so tough. I knew that I was trying to out-stay a stayer. But when I needed my horse, he was there. When I needed one last lunge to the line.”
They went past the winning post together, a Joseph O’Brien 1-2 in one of the most competitive staying handicaps on the racing calendar.
“I thought that we might have won, but I didn’t allow myself think it. Not until I heard my number called. Number 20.”
Even now, he remembers what number he was.
Cue celebrations. Cue his return to unsaddle in the winner’s enclosure at Royal Ascot for the first time.
Joey Sheridan had been there before. Royal Ascot 2021, then an apprentice rider, he rode the 28/1 shot Princess Zoe to finish second behind Subjectivist in the Ascot Gold Cup. Then he and Tony Mullins’ mare went back to Ascot almost two years later and, still an apprentice, won the Group 3 Sagaro Stakes, got home by a head and a neck and a neck from Tom Marquand and William Buick and Ryan Moore in a thriller.
He and Princess Zoe run deep. He was an apprentice when he rang Tony Mullins to ask if he could ride the grey mare in a handicap at Roscommon in June 2020 on what was due to be her first run in Ireland. She didn’t run in that race, she was in season on the day of the race, and he obviously couldn’t ride her in the lady riders’ handicap that she won at The Curragh the following month, nor in the big amateur riders’ handicap that she won at the Galway Festival nine days later.
But Princess Zoe ran in another handicap at the Galway Festival that year, five days after she had won the amateur riders’ race, and he rode her to victory in that. He couldn't use his claim in the Listed Oyster Stakes back at Galway the following September, but Tony Mullins still had no hesitation in putting him up, and they won that too.
Then he and Princess Zoe went to France, to Longchamp, in October 2020 for the Group 1 Prix du Cadran. They were Covid times, the crowds were missing, but it didn’t matter, it didn’t diminish the importance of the occasion. Joey Sheridan delivered Princess Zoe with a well-timed tun to get up and nab the long-time leader Alkuin close home. A first Group 1 win for the apprentice jockey. He was 18.
A graduate of the pony racing circuit, Joey Sheridan spent a summer with David Wachman and, when David Wachman retired from the training ranks, he moved to Ballydoyle before taking out his apprenticeship with Denis Hogan.
“I learned so much at David Wachman’s and at Aidan O’Brien’s,” he says, “and Denis has been brilliant to me. And Fozzy Stack. It was great to see Fozzy win the Chesham Stakes on Thursday with Nola Soul, with Seamie Heffernan on board. I flew over from Cork with Seamie. His enthusiasm is unreal.”
It was at Tipperary in April last year that Dylan Browne McMonagle suggested that he should go into Joseph O’Brien’s to ride out if he had the time. He made the time, he started going in one day a week. He got one or two rides for Joseph, he rode Snapretend to win a median auction race at Punchestown, and kicked on. Now he splits his time, three days a week in Denis Hogan’s, three days a week in Joseph O’Brien’s.
“Denis just said to me, give it a try and see how it goes. It’s great to be a part of both teams. It’s very easy to get up out of bed in the mornings.”
When Dylan Browne McMonagle was on the sidelines through injury earlier in the season, Joey Sheridan was entrusted with the ride on Celestial Orbit in the Group 3 Park Express Stakes at The Curragh, and on Thundering On in the Group 3 Salsabil Stakes at Naas. He won on both. As well as his Royal Ascot winner, he has ridden 25 winners in Ireland this season so far. He sits joint third in the jockeys’ championship, behind only Billy Lee and Colin Keane, level with Ryan Moore.
“I’m very lucky,” he says. “The position I’m in. I just want to keep on making the best of the opportunities that I am given. Leave nothing behind. Stay in the top five.”
He went to Limerick on Friday evening and rode Themis for Joseph O’Brien to win the 12-furlong maiden.
© The Sunday Times, 21st June 2026
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