Jockey Aubrey McMahon has had a dream run by anybody's standards. Winning his first race at sixteen, he went from strength to strength, claiming one of the biggest victories of this year's Galway Races riding his father's horse. What jockey could ask for more. There's always a flip side to the coin though, and nineteen-year-old Aubrey has seen the darker side too. So much so that while riding high in racing terms, Aubrey took himself out of the game for a full year due to vicious online abuse. He joined Ryan Tubridy to talk about the rise, fall and rise again of his racing career.
"When I started off riding, I got on well. I rode my first winner on my second ride and when you're riding for Willie Mullins, all Willie's horses are going to be favourites. People are going to be putting money on you I suppose… On my third ride I was second in Galway, beaten by a length… I came back in and checked my phone and next thing you might have ten tweets from ten anonymous lads with no picture, no name or no anything. I won't say what they were saying but you can imagine. They were calling you every name under the sun."
Aubrey describes himself as his own worst critic, so coping with online trolling on top of that makes for head-spinning work, especially for a teen dealing with the pressures of the racetrack, not to mention the Leaving Cert. Betters who lost money on horses Aubrey was riding took to the keyboards to give him an online bashing that would see him put his life's ambition on hold.
"I just couldn't get my own head around it. It got to the point where my head was just frying from it. I couldn't take any more of it so I decided to knock it on the head. At the time I said I was never going to go back."
Aubrey took to the computer himself, but in a professional capacity, finding work in an office in Sandymount. After a year doing night shifts, the bug bit again and he followed the siren call of the saddle, slowly at first, working his way back to the big leagues. "You don't get as much of a kick out of a computer as a horse," as he puts it himself. Soon, Aubrey was riding for over five hours a day before heading into a heavy day of work. Seeing his passion, his boss pulled him aside and told him his job would wait, but he'd never get this time back on the racetrack. Thus, a decision was made, a career break was taken and Aubrey was back in the game.
"It's amazing when you give it a break for a year. It just cleared my head about the whole thing. I could get (the abuse) tomorrow and just laugh and get rid of it. I came back into racing with a clear head on my shoulders."
Aubrey came back with a bang, an impressive win and a story to share with those who've suffered similar abuse. Let's leave the last line though with a texter to the show:
"The best revenge is to live a good life, and it also annoys the bejaysus out of those who would bring us down!"
Click here for the full interview.