Amateur jockey, 59, rides first winner after 40 years of trying

Racing’s history books are full of the most unlikely tales but few can surely compare with that of Simon Condon and Eat The Book at Kilbeggan on Thursday evening.

To say the odds were stacked against the pair in the 15-runner staying handicap hurdle was the biggest of understatements.

Condon, a 59-year-old amateur who is a healthcare assistant by day, had been trying in vain to ride a winner for 40 years. Before Thursday, he had never finished better than third.

Meanwhile, Eat The Book, a David Dunne-trained nine-year-old who himself had never won a race, had hurt himself so badly in his younger days that it was feared he might have to be put down.

Slowly away and still last with a circuit to go, the combination - sent off at a skinny-looking 40-1 (the Betfair SP was 92-1) - looked to be sticking to a likely script.

But then the stars suddenly aligned and the impossible gradually became possible. They passed one rival after the other and, after avoiding a melee three out, jumped the final flight upsides Mark Walsh and A Different World. The same Mark Walsh who has ridden countless big winners for top owner JP McManus, including at the Cheltenham Festival last month.

But this was to be Condon's day. He and Eat The Book hit the front and eased clear to win with something to spare to win by five-and-a-half lengths.

A jubilant Condon, who also owns Eat The Book and rides out regularly, spoke to Kevin O’Ryan on Racing TV afterwards and revealed his first ride had been as a 19-year-old.

He’d lost count of the number of rides he’d had in the four subsequent decades, the majority in point-to-points, and most record books and websites don’t detail everything going back to 1982. What we do know is that a pint of Guinness was about €1.30 back then.

Suffice to say, Condon was on the cold list. The freezing cold list. In fact, similar to that scene in The Empire Strikes Back where Hans Solo is frozen in carbonite. That movie was released not long after Condon first rode in a race, come to think of it.

But now he’s off the Hans Solo Frozen In Carbonite List, and typical of any winning jockey, the thawing process has quickly left him thinking about where his next victory might be coming from.

“I’ve been waiting a long time for this,” he said, like a man who might easily win some award for patience and persistance. “It’s hard to describe the feeling. Normally when I ride, there are always horses in front of me. To be in front, with nothing ahead of you? ‘Oh My God’ I got some buzz out of that. It’s the best feeling ever.

"It was amazing to pass the line in front – a day I’ll never forget. I’ll probably get emotional about it tomorrow."

He added: “Eat The Book was a handful in the early days and I’ve had a fair few falls off him – he’s broke me up a good few times. Now, he’s a grand horse but he’s owed me that.

“My Dad bought him for me to ride and David’s done a great job training him. He broke his elbow in Thurles and the prognosis was very bad. It’s been some training performance to get him back.”

A delighted Dunne, for his part, described the win as “unbelievable” and admitted that for the first two laps he had been saying to himself 'what is he doing?’.

Meanwhile, leading amateur jockey Jamie Codd took to Twitter and, using Racing TV’s replay of the finish, said “this is what you call a peach. Well done, Simon.”

And so say all of us.