Shane Broderick

Shane Broderick

Shane was born in 1974 to Noel and Mary from Curragha Lorrha; he grew up on the family farm and attended Rathcabbin National School. It was in these early school years Shane developed a passion for horses. It was a day trip out with the Ormond hunt on a little pony called Candy that Shane got hooked, and from that day forward he knew there was only one career for him, Horses.

Shane later attended Birr Community school but left after his inter cert at the tender age of fifteen to pursue a career as a jockey. He first went to the yard of his uncle in law Gerry Lynch from Craughwell and was soon on the move again this time to the bigger yard of Tony Redmond in the Curragh. Shane got his first big break after riding Sammy Joe to win the Dingle Derby this was the largest pony race in Ireland, in the crowd that day was the very successful horse trainer Michael Hourigan and Shanes performance caught his eye. Before Shane knew it was on the road again this time to Hourigans yards in Limerick.

Things were taking off for Shane and on only his second ride in Februrary 1993 on a horse called Golden Opal Shane recorded his first winner, a second was soon to follow in the form of Tara Mill and the career of one of the most famous Irish jockeys had begun.

The first big winner Shane saddled was a horse called “Anusha” when winning the Ladbrook hurdle at Leopardstown but Shane’s most successful partnership was on board the majestic “Donrans Pride”. Shane and Doran’s Pride were successful on many occasions including famously winning the Stayers hurdle in Cheltemham 1995 to the delight of the Irish punters. They were to return to Cheltenham in 1997 to the Gold Cup this time to finish a fine Third in the worlds most important National Hunt Race.

By the time of the Gold Cup in 1997 Shane had saddles nearly 100 winners and was the fifth leading Jockey in Ireland behind only the likes of Charlie Swan, Francis Woods and Paul Carberry. Shanes was flying, he was a mini celebrity in the parish and regularly appearing on TV, radio and National papers, one Sunday paper had a heading “Lorrha Pride” across its sports pages after Shane and Doran’s Pride had won another important acculade.

Unfortunately when Shane rode Royal Oasis to win Easter Monday 1997 it was to be his last win as a Jockey. In the next race aboard “Another Deadly” he was to receive the life threatening injuries that ended his riding career. Shane took a crashing fall in that race and broke his neck. He was to spend a year in rehab where he was told he would be confined to a wheelchair as he had lost the power in both his legs and arms.

No one would have blamed Shane if he had lost his love of horse racing, but no, he took out a training licence and is currently training race-horses at his specially adapted residence in Cullagh, Rathcabbin. Shane has full time assistants and a quality yard staff that assist in the training of the horses. The yard has the facilities to train up to 20 horses and has had a successful few years, in a game that is notoriously hard to train winners, to date Shane has trained 12 winners since his first, All Noble in Cork in 2006.

Shane Brodericks story is an inspiration to everyone who knows ot and how fitting it would be to see Shane back in the winners enclosure as a trainer in Cheltenham the scene of his greatest racing in the not too distant future.