GARY CARROLL
Carroll No1
A career-best season included a second Royal Ascot winner, a stakes victory on a first ride for Aidan O’Brien and consistent repayment of faith shown in him by Mick Mulvany and Joe Murphy, as well as Ger Lyons and Gavin Cromwell
Words: Ian Gaughran • Photos: Caroline Norris
It is a fitting afternoon to catch up with Gary Carroll. The flat season is drawing to a close and the Kildare man is on the way home following a Galway win on board Joe Murphy's Immutable. It is winner number 53, Carroll's best season in the saddle, on a horse trained by one of his most loyal backers. It is also the one that surpasses the highest total his father Raymond - himself an Irish St Leger victor - managed. Gary would ultimately finish on 54.
Raymond, possibly Gary's greatest ally and harshest critic, will be on the phone within the hour to discuss his performance in the saddle at Galway - and likely to congratulate him. “It’s my best ever season, my first time breaking 50 winners and I also found out today that getting to 53 beats my father’s record – his best season was 52 so there’s some bragging rights. I’ll have him onto me around seven o’clock,” Carroll says.
“I’d say he’ll be down the shop getting a couple of bits, grab a shower and then he’ll be on to me for my debrief for the day! It’s great to get that winner for Joe too because he’s been one of my biggest supporters for a long, long time now – him and Mick Mulvany, I’ve been riding for them since I’ve been a seven-pound claimer, I’m almost part of their families now.
“They are two great men, who have shown a lot of trust in and loyalty to me so I’m glad to be able to repay them – every winner for them is almost a relief, that I can repay that faith.” Carroll has twice been champion apprentice, once shared with Ben Curtis and Joseph O'Brien and once out on his own, but 2023 has easily been his most rewarding campaign, qualitatively and quantitatively. It produced a second Royal Ascot triumph, a stakes success for Aidan O'Brien, more than 50 winners in total, over €1m in prizemoney and some real promise for the future in the likes of Desmond Stakes winner Lord Massusus.
“I had had 41 winners last year so I had set myself a target of 50 (for 2023). I was actually stuck on 49 for quite a while and it was getting frustrating… the target next year will be 60, but we all start on zero and the hard work will begin all over again.
“More trainers are supporting me these days, I suppose, and now I’m probably a senior jockey seeing as though I’m probably mid-thirties. It’s more so that Joe Murphy hit the ground running early on, and so did Mick. We were banging in winners and usually when that happens you tend to get more outside rides – I’ve won on horses this year for people I wouldn’t usually ride for so it’s all great.”
One such trainer is the incomparable Aidan O’Brien, whose Unless was underneath Carroll at The Curragh in August when the pair landed the Listed Michael John Kennedy Memorial Irish EBF Stakes.
“Maybe fatherhood has helped with some of the success I’ve been having”
“I suppose that’s a feather in any man’s cap, to say you rode for him, never mind won for him – it was a great thrill and I was very happy to have been given the opportunity.”
Perhaps O’Brien was impressed by Carroll’s ride on Snellen in the Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot and he decided that Carroll was the man for Unless – it was, after all, his Pearls And Rubies who was beaten by a short head at Royal Ascot.
“Oh, that was a great thrill,” Carroll continues. “She was a filly we thought a lot of and was flying at home. And it was going to be a big ask to win her maiden and then go and win at Royal Ascot just ten days later but Gavin Cromwell and his team did an amazing job to get her back as quick as they did to win.
“She’s an exciting filly and probably ran on the wrong ground subsequently but she has the size and the scope to make into a lovely three-year-old.”
As he travels across the country heading home from the races, the line breaks. As we wait for a bit of coverage to come back to his phone, it gives another opportunity to rewatch that Chesham. In real time, the result looks clear – Carroll and Snellen win well.
The slow-motion reply shows how close it was and in the immediate aftermath, Carroll appears not so sure. Spread across the track, Carroll looks towards Ryan Moore on Pearls And Rubies. Moore looks back as they finish.
“I was fully sure I was beaten – I was half-gutted that I had let her roll left, a bit of greenness and getting a little but tired, I probably should have pulled my stick through. And even though I knew connections would be delighted as they were hoping for a top-four finish, I was half-gutted. But then when I looked up at the big screen and the camera kept showing me, I thought maybe I had won it, and so we did! I really thought, for sure, that we had been beaten but it was a nice surprise.
“I suppose that’s a feather in any man’s cap, to say you rode for Aidan O’Brien, never mind won for him”
After a Group 3 success this year, the Joe Murphy-trained Lord Massusus might be the one to break Gary Carroll’s top-flight duck in 2024
“Gavin really is going from strength to strength, at the minute – I love riding for him, love working for him. He listens to everything you say and he is very keen to improve so that’s helped me as well because I want to get things right for him too. He has invested a lot in his facilities and next year he’s going to have a new straight woodchip gallop that is going to be a huge help to all the flat horses as well. He’s getting more money to spend with new owners. So, he’s going to be really mixing it with the big guns over the next few years.
“And you know, mixing Chesham winners with Stayers’ Hurdle winners – there’s no fluke about it and I don’t even think we’ve seen the best of him yet, he’s still improving and I’m looking forward to seeing where it takes him.”
Lord Massusus has been another highlight of Carroll’s season, with that Desmond Stakes win opening doors to what could be a globetrotting four-year-old campaign. It’s just reward for a partnership with Murphy that has endured for the guts of 15 years and the Markaz gelding could provide him with that elusive first Group 1 winner.
“Any good winner that I can repay Joe’s faith in me is a welcome one but if I can get the best out of all our horses it’s job done. The nice ones though, when we do come across them, you really hope they can fulfil their potential. He has some nice options, including in the likes of Bahrain, so hopefully we can have a bit of fun with him around the world next year. He will be better again as a four-year-old.
“Long term, it’s about continuing to improve – 60 will be the number for next year and ideally, I’d like to also improve on the quality of winners too. Joe and Gavin are buying a better class of horse the last couple of years, and that’s down to their success.
“A Group 1 winner still eludes me. I’ve been placed in plenty of Group 1s… but Group 1-winning rides are very hard to find. Hopefully we’ll come across one someday!
“As I’ve said, I have some fantastic support, from the likes of Joe and Gavin, but also Mick and Ger Lyons. Mick will tell you that it was him that got me going! My first ride for him was on The Tooth Fairy, who was difficult to get up on and down to the start and to get out of the stalls. But I managed him well, we finished third that day and I think I won five times on him. He ended up being rated 96 or 97 and was just beaten in a premier handicap at Leopardstown one day. We’ve done very well since – I’ve ridden plenty of winners for him, I still am. He’s great to ride for, his family is great to ride for and I love riding for them.
“I won a Lincoln for him on On The Go Again (in 2018). He was a good horse, we won a listed race too. Mick does extremely well with the calibre of horse he has – he always will get the best out of them, it’s what you need as a jockey, that you know you’re going to get the best version of them. Mick’s horses are always healthy and fit and always run to line for me.
“Ger has been very good to me over the years too. In fairness to him, when Colin Keane isn’t there, he never looks past me – it wouldn’t matter what the horse is. Ger is one of those who always fills you with confidence. He lets you at it, trusts in your ability to do the right thing on his horses. And even with Colin there, there have been plenty of times down the years that he’s had a tough choice when Ger would run more than one in a big race. But it’s always made my choice easy and it’s worked out well at times for me.”
With a young family – he shares two children, Annabell and Max, with wife Joanne - there is extra incentive for Carroll to improve his totals next year, and beyond. Building a house and a yard for his young family makes the wins that bit more welcome and makes spending time away from his children during the busier months of the season a little more bearable. Perhaps they’re part of the reason he is enjoying his most successful period in the saddle.
“The kids are great craic. Of course, they can be full-on at times but I wouldn’t change anything. The only pity is in the summer I don’t get to see enough of them as I’m on the road so much. But they’re a great leveller – I could have a bad couple of days on the track but they don’t know about that and they want me to play with them! Maybe fatherhood has helped with some of the success I’ve been having too – I don’t just have myself to provide for anymore. We’re building a house this year, we’re building our future and I suppose we need this success to come with it.
“There’s nothing cheap about building a house anymore but it’s going to be a huge milestone in our lives for our family and hopefully we’ll build a yard to go with it. So it’s exciting and it helps me keep the head down and helps focus me to win races.
“Joanne though, does so much behind the scenes for me – she’s always there for me and makes plenty of sacrifices. She’s bringing up our two children and deserves all the praise in the world. Even though sometimes if I have a bad day at the races she might get the brunt of it!” A team game indeed.