Hi, my name is Adrien Bolger and I came to RACE with the hopes and dreams of becoming a professional National Hunt jockey.  Don’t get me wrong, they still are my dreams, but I am more realistic about things now.

When I came on the trial I got a dose of reality, being a jockey wasn’t all a the life of race meetings and award ceremonies, there is a lot of hard work behind it, and not everyone who has hopes of being a jockey will make it.  I put my heart and soul into the trial because if I got into RACE I knew in my heart that I would give myself a better fighting chance of becoming a top class jockey.  Nearing the end of the summer and I heard nothing back from R.A.C.E, so I started to get nervous until I got the phone call from my father that I got in.  I was over the moon and couldn’t wait to start.

On the 14th of August we started and there were a few familiar faces around, but a lot of new people I hadn’t met before.  I thought to myself that these people, in a few years, are going to be my rivals on the track and hopefully my friends in the tack room.  The basic day's routine would be you get up at 6.30, tidy your room, go for breakfast and then down to the yard.  At the start you are given a horse to look after for the time you are there.  When you're down the yard first you muck your box out, then you would ride out, groom your horse and finish at 12.30.  It may sound long, but trust me, its not that bad.  Get a shower and go straight up for dinner.  At two o'clock classes start; its only 'til five so don’t think its like school.  We do 6 subjects and we have about two to three hours of each subject a week.  At night we have PE or art. 

I am just finished my 3rd week out in Con Collins's yard.  Going out to the yard you might think that you're going to get a bad time from all the lads in the yard, and that they are going to be unhelpful.  But I'll tell you now that everyone in the yards will help you.  All you have to do is ask someone for help.  Don’t get me wrong, you will find some people that are mean and unhelpful, but that’s in every walk of life.  All I can really tell you, if you love horses and in your heart you want to become a jockey, or even just to work and make a living out of horses, then RACE is  definitely the place you should go. 

To conclude my story about RACE I want to say that I have learnt so much, and I have only been on this course for four months; I can't wait to see what else I am going to learn in the next six months.  I now feel that I have a better chance than ever of fulfilling my dreams of becoming a top-class jockey.  I also know that at I'll be a good horseman at the end of this course.