Apprentice Jockey Profiles

2006 BRS Graduate Kieren is apprentice to Michael Attwater, having started there in October 2008. His first winner came in January 2009 at Kempton aboard Ben Bacchus for trainer P Hiatt. Since which he has gone onto win the Apprentice series at Kempton.

This is quite an achievement, seeing as Kieren didn't start riding until he was 16 and joined the British Racing School. In October 2009 Kieren represented the BRS in the European Association of Racing Schools (EARS) race in Pisa, Italy; he finished 4th in a hotly contested race.

Kieren's plans for the future - to have a successful career and become champion jockey.

BRS Graduate Rosie Jessop is apprentice to Sir Mark Prescott and has been since March 2008, having already worked for him for 3 years. This patience paid off as her first ride resulted in a winner; Boundless Prospect, trained by Ms Gay Kellaway won by 2½ lengths in March 2008.

Rosie has been riding since a very young age, and competed at dressage, show jumping and cross country, but it was at the BRS in 2005 that she learnt to ride racehorses.

To date Rosie hasn't ridden any big race winners but is confident that this will happen, and her aims for the future? To ride out her claim and be a very successful jockey.

Holly comes from a horse orientated background, having come up through the pony club ranks. She was also given the opportunity to ride on the point to point circuit riding, with her mum providing the horse!

When Holly left school she came to the BRS to do the 9 week foundation course, and was given a job at James Eustace's when she left. It was here that she first took out her Apprentice licence back in 2004. Following a stint working in for Henrietta Knight and 3 months working in Australia, Holly returned to Simon Callaghans and her first winner came in January 2009 aboard Stargazy. Holly was top of the jockey leaderboard at the beginning of 2009 with 100% strike rate on her first 3 rides of the year!

With the announcement by Mr Callaghan that he is moving to America, Holly has made the move to P D Evans, who she hopes will give her plenty of opportunities on the All-weather, and move her closer to her aim of riding out her claim.

Simon was a late starter to riding, having not started since he was 18, despite his father, Jeff, being a trainer. The first thing he did was take out his amateur licence, which proved a good move as he was crowned champion amateur. He got the ball rolling with this aboard Bid For Fame who provided him with his first winner. Then in October 2007 Simon turned apprentice, and this time it was Given A Choice who provided with him with his first winner.

Simon aims to become Champion Apprentice in the next couple of years, and he is going the right way about it, having just been the runaway winner of The 2009 Betfair Training Series.

The long term goal for Simon is to be crowned Champion Jockey.

When he was 15 Ryan approached J Osbourne during Lambourn Open Day. He explained to him that he wanted to be a jockey and he offered him a couple of weeks work experience in his yard. Ryan ended up staying for 5 months before attending the 9 week foundation course at The British Racing School. Once he had completed this he returned to Mr Osbourne's and over the space of a year learnt a great deal from him and during this time he gave Ryan some great opportunities. However he decided to move to a smaller yard to improve his opportunities for Apprentice rides and he is now based with Rod Simpson.

Richard is based with his father and trainer P D Evans and has been riding racehorses since he was 10 years old and by the age of 12 was riding work. He took out his Amateur Licence in 2006. In October 2007, Richard came back to the BRS to complete the Apprentice Licence course, and hasn't looked back since. He currently claims 5lb.