Keane Smashes Record for Season Winners in Ireland

History was made at the Curragh Oct. 10 as Colin Keane smashed Joseph O'Brien's all-time record for winners in a season in Ireland with three weeks to spare, and Ireland's champion jockey admitted he might never have another year like it. 

No sooner had Keane surpassed O'Brien's record and moved on to 127 for the campaign on Power Under Me  in the listed Hatstone Solicitors Waterford Testimonial Stakes then he was celebrating winner number 128 thanks to the all-the-way victory of Pretty Boy Floyd in the five-furlong handicap.

Keane, who turned 27 last month, had equaled O'Brien's record on Torn at Dundalk Friday night, and admitted the magnitude of the achievement had not sunk in yet.

After being clapped back into the weighing room by the Curragh crowd after winning on Power Under Me, Keane said: "It hasn't sunk in and probably won't until we start on zero next year and we're looking back on it all. We try to beat last season's tally every year but we mightn't have a year like this again for a while so we'll appreciate it while it's here.

"When we got to the hundred earlier in the year, the next logical thing was to try get to 126. The horses have been in great form all year so that's why it has happened. I've been riding for great people and I have a great agent so I wouldn't have achieved it without them." 

He added: "We've been getting close to it slowly but surely. I didn't really feel pressure to break it this week. When we got within three of it and still had three weeks left, I would have been happy to ride just one winner a week. I would have been happy to beat it by one on the final day."

Keane hasn't beaten it by one on the final day, he has already beaten it by two, and the season doesn't come to a close until Oct. 31.

When asked for his highlight of the record-breaking campaign, Keane replied: "The whole season in general has been a highlight, but I'd say Champions Weekend at Leopardstown was the one that stands out. It was the first day the boss (Ger Lyons) was back racing and he had a four-timer.

"He wanted to have as many runners as possible that weekend. None of them were favorite, but they were all going there with good chances if things fell right, which they did."

O'Brien's record of 126 winners had stood since 2013, when he surpassed the legendary Mick Kinane whose previous record of 115 winners in a campaign was set in 1995. 

Keane has three weeks to deposit more victories into his account, and Ger Lyons, who has provided him with 71 of his 128 winners so far, heaped praise on his attitude. 

Lyons said: "Colin is a credit to himself, his family, and the whole racing industry. He's a fine example of what a champion jockey should be. He keeps himself to himself and lets his riding do the talking.

"You see Billy Lee going over to shake his hand after the race and that tells you all you need to know about the huge respect he has in the weighing room. He's just a genuinely good guy.

"I don't know exactly what's the right way of putting it, but I think he's the perfect person to step into Pat's (Smullen) shoes. I mean that in the nicest possible way and I think Pat himself would even agree with me. It couldn't happen to a finer person—quiet, unassuming, and a really good guy.

"The industry is full of people trying to make heroes out of X, Y, and Z, but Colin has done it his way, the old-fashioned way, and his riding doing all the talking.

"Every winner he rides from now until the end of the season is going to be a record and, you know what, next season he will want to better whatever total he finishes with this season, so he is going to keep us on our toes."