Brian O'Connoron the career of Kevin Manning, who hopes to land the Epsom-Curragh Derby double on New Approach if the horse is passed fit.
KEVIN MANNING is no lover of the limelight a la Frankie Dettori. Whereas the Italian relishes attention on the back of his racecourse endeavours, the Irishman actively discourages it, which places him in a bit of a dilemma this weekend. With New Approach a hot favourite to complete the Epsom-Curragh Derby until last night's late injury scare, a dramatic "will he - won't he run" episode today means the 41-year-old is at the epicentre of the racing world's focus.
It's not that Manning is some difficult, reclusive figure. In fact there is no more popular figure in the jockeys' room in Ireland. But a natural inclination towards reserve is amplified on the run-up to the big occasion.
There's also his weariness with the question he knows is always waiting. Manning is a tall man. At approximately 5ft 10ins he is positively elephantine compared to many of his colleagues. That he can scale such heights while plumbing the depths of eight and a half stone is probably even more of a remarkable feat than his Epsom heroics three weeks ago.
"Kevin is very popular because all the other jockeys know how hard he has to work. No one works harder. He has an unbelievable frame and when you're out there running and sweating every day, putting yourself through starvation, it is incredibly tough," says the former champion jockey Christy Roche who has known Manning since his apprentice days.
"Johnny (Murtagh) has to work hard at it too but he's had good horses to keep him going along the road. Kevin hasn't had that until recently. But he's not one to talk about it himself."
That apprenticeship began with New Approach's trainer Jim Bolger, the man who would later become Manning's father-in-law after his marriage to Una. It's a link that has resulted in another persistently wearisome line of inquiry. Whereas his son-in-law cuts a reserved figure, Bolger's authoritarian reputation is famous throughout the racing world. It appears an unlikely combination but it has worked seamlessly for the last decade and a half.
Roche was number one rider to Bolger in the early 1990s when the controversial trainer enjoyed a purple patch in some of Europe's major races, including landing the 1992 Irish Derby with a record-breaking performance by St Jovite.
That Bolger and Manning have enjoyed such a long professional relationship doesn't surprise him at all.
"It may shock many people but even with all the trainers I rode for, Jim Bolger was probably the most understanding of them all. Whatever else you say about him, he always backs his own jockey.
"It wasn't as tough as you might think: just because Kevin is his son-in-law wouldn't mean a lot to Jim. The way I see it Jim Bolger sees Kevin Manning as his stable jockey first and foremost," he says.
Like Bolger, Manning didn't emerge from a racing background. Born and raised in north Co Dublin, his father worked as a store supervisor at the nearby airport. It was through ponies that the youngster discovered a love of racing and in 1982 he began his long association with the then emerging training force of his future father-in-law. In 1984 came a first significant victory when the Paddy Mullins trained Chammsky won the Irish Cambridgeshire at the Curragh.
But it was the Bolger-trained mare Noora Abu that really helped launch his career. In 1987 she won seven races, including a black-type success in the Ballycorus Stakes. It helped Manning to land that year's champion apprentice title with 33 winners. The runner up was no less than Kieren Fallon.
AFTER BEING number two to Declan Gillespie, Manning filled the same role to Roche during Bolger's initial golden period when emerging talents such as Aidan O'Brien, Tony McCoy and Paul Carberry were also at the trainer's Coolcullen base in Co Carlow. But after Roche's departure in 1993 he got his chance at number one. It coincided, however, with a comparative slide in Bolger's fortunes.
Always competitive at home, and always at the top end the domestic statistics, the team couldn't consistently compete with a resurgent Ballydoyle, where O'Brien quickly established himself as an international force.
Indirectly, though, O'Brien was to play an important role at re-establishing his former boss.
Throughout this time, Manning might not have had the profile of the likes of Michael Kinane or Murtagh but his ability on the big stage was never in doubt. In 2002 the 33 to 1 Margarula provided a classic success in the Irish Oaks, while another mare, Alexander Goldrun, picked up five Group One races from Hong Kong to France and back to Ireland. Throughout, Manning was at his low-key but clinically effective best.
"He is a private human being, who's actually quite shy. He's not one to push a public image and I think that's why up to now he has been underrated," argues the Curragh trainer and Manning's next-door neighbour, Jim Gorman.
"But he's a one hundred and ten per cent fantastic fella, very loyal and as good a professional as you can get. He has to be a very strong, dedicated man to do what he does with his weight. "It helps that he's one of these people who never sits down. He's always doing stuff. Even if it is strimming a neighbour's hedge or mowing their lawn, he never sits easy."
Professionally, his career has moved up a number of gears since Bolger's faith in the Coolmore stallion Galileo, the 2001 dual-Derby winner trained by O'Brien, started paying off in style.
Teofilo ended 2006 an unbeaten champion two-year-old. Injury prevented him running as a three-year-old but Finsceal Beo won the English and Irish 1,000 Guineas last season, while New Approach, another son of Galileo, uncannily followed exactly the Teofilo juvenile route.
Unlike his former stable companion however, New Approach has built on his early promise in classic style.
A pair of defeats in the English and Irish 2,000 Guineas last month were forgotten as he secured a memorable Epsom Derby victory three weeks ago under a widely-praised ride from Manning.
"I rang him about five minutes after the Derby and I told him whatever races he might win in future, or even if he becomes champion jockey, the Derby will be the one he remembers most," says Roche, himself an Epsom winner in 1984.
"I'm not saying it's better than the Irish Derby or the French Derby but there is something different about the thing. It's what every jockey wants on their CV."
He adds: "Kevin's ride was unbelievable. Jim said it was one of the great rides and if someone else had said that it might have been taken up more. Maybe people expected Jim to say that. But as an ex-jockey, I know it was brilliant. He had a 10th of a second to make his mind up about switching to the inside and he brought it off. Eight times out of 10, any jockey would have gone to the outside and if Kevin had gone right instead of left he wouldn't have won the Derby."
Somehow, though, it seemed to only fit Manning's style that on the most memorable day of his career the spotlight should have such difficulty in picking him out. It was Bolger who felt its heat at Epsom.
But as today's likely drama proves, New Approach's jockey is finding the limelight harder and harder to avoid.
Manning the posts Distinguished track record
Name:Kevin Manning
Born:March 7 1967 Kilsallaghan, Co Dublin
Marital status:Married to Una (daughter of trainer Jim Bolger), two children.
First winner:Keynes at the Curragh, April 1983.
Champion apprentice:1984 (18 winners) and 1987 (33 winners).
First Group One winner:Eva Luna - 1994 Phoenix Stakes.
First Classic winner:Margarula - 2002 Irish Oaks.
Other Major Classic/Group 1 winners:Alexander Goldrun - 2004 Prix de l'Opera, 2004 Hong Kong Cup, 2005 Nassau Stakes, 2005 Pretty Polly Stakes, 2006 Pretty Polly Stakes.
Teofilo - 2006 National Stakes, 2006 Dewhurst Stakes. Finsceal Beo - 2006 Prix Marcel Boussac, 2007 English 1,000 Guineas, 2007 Irish 1,000 Guineas. New Approach - 2007 National Stakes, 2007 Dewhurst Stakes, 2008 Derby. Saoirse Abu - 2007 Phoenix Stakes, 2007 Moyglare Stud Stakes. Lush Lashes - 2008 Coronation Stakes.
