3 minute read
A three-time champion jockey on the flat, Oisin Murphy looks set to switch codes at Wincanton on Thursday with his first ride over hurdles.
Oisin Murphy, 28, enjoyed yet another successful campaign on the level last season, with six Group 1 victories – including another Classic when Mawj landed the QIPCO 1000 Guineas at Newmarket in May.
However, the Qatar-retained rider will swap the dip of the Rowley Mile for the mud-splattering hurdles course at Wincanton, when partnering the Cian Collins-trained six-year-old Lets Do This in the Danny McNab Bookmakers "National Hunt" Novices' Handicap Hurdle (2.05pm).
The Killarney-born champion has expressed his aspirations to ride over jumps in recent years and explained the decision to make the temporary switch.
Murphy said: "My uncle is Jim Culloty, who rode winners of the Cheltenham Gold Cup (Best Mate), Grand National (Bindaree) and Irish Grand National (Timbera) and also trained a winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup (Lord Windermere). I worked with him in my teens, so Jump racing has always been part of my life and it has always been a burning ambition of mine to ride in a Jump race.
"I took out a Jump licence earlier in the year as at one stage it looked like I might get a ride in the Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival.
"The programme of Flat racing means it is unlikely that I will be able to ride over hurdles often, but this opportunity arose as I know the trainer and owner of Lets Do This well. It is only a fairly low-grade handicap hurdle on Thursday, so it seemed like a good place to start. I have been schooling horses to prepare though have not yet ridden Lets Do This."
Looking ahead to Thursday, Murphy continued: "Jim might be coming along to see me ride and my friend Denis O'Regan, who recently retired, might be travelling over from Ireland.
"I'll be walking the course when I get to Wincanton to see what it's like and will try and seek the advice of the Jump jockeys riding there. I am really looking forward to the challenge."
Although certainly the latest star to enjoy a spell in the National Hunt sphere, Murphy certainly isn't the first, with the likes of the late, great Lester Piggott riding twenty winners over hurdles. In more recent years Richard Hughes, Jamie Spencer and Tom Queally having all enjoyed success under both codes.
"It would be an amazing feeling to get a winner over Jumps and I'm not looking beyond Thursday at the moment – I just hope I don't embarrass myself!", Murphy joked.
