My name is Colm McCormack.  I  am 15 years old, from a big county called Galway.  I live with my Dad, Mam, Sister and Granddad.  I have various hobbies which include hurling, swimming and going to race meetings. 

At the moment I am attending the Racing Academy Center of Education (RACE.)  RACE is based in the Curragh House, Kildare, Co Kildare.  The course is a ten month long course for trainee jockeys.  The course is broken in to three sections.  For the first three months trainees tend the stables at RACE, in the afternoon they tend FETAC classes.  Second term trainees go out to local trainers around the Curragh for the mornings and then attend classes in the evenings.  The last term the trainees are full time to the yards and the classes finish.

At the moment I am in to my second term in the course.  I am enjoying it very much.  I am working for a trainer called John Oxx.  I am working there for the last four week and it is wonderful.  I am riding out three to four lots a day.  Its also very tough on the body because you are up at 5.15 in the morning.  But it will all be worth it after all because I hope to become a Champion National Hunt Jockey in the future.

There are various activates that we attend in the evenings which include, PE, simulator training with Dermot Hogan and art.  Also we a have a recreation room that can be used by all the trainees; it has a pool table, TV and computer.  We sleep in dormitories.  There is six rooms in each dorm with five dorms.  There have been various successful jockeys who have graduated from RACE: Conor O`Dwyer, David Casey, Johnny Murtagh, Cathy Gannon, and recently Chris Hayes.

We get food every day in a canteen - the ladies look after us very well.  The facilities are very good, they include a simulator room, a yard with thirty boxes, an indoor arena, two  furlong gallop and walker.  The facilities for school in the afternoon are also excellent.  We have a computer room with 14 state of the art computers, and two other classrooms for classes.  I also get to go home back to Galway every weekend but we are back in RACE at Sunday evening.  That’s really all about me and if you hear of anyone who has a spare rides in races give us a shout!!