An Irish jockey is celebrating after riding his first ever winner at the age of 59.
Simon Condon partnered Eat The Book to victory at Kilbeggan on Thursday evening at odds of 40/1.
The 59-year-old amateur jockey, who works as a healthcare assistant, has been trying to win a race for 40 years and had never finished better than third.
The win was all the more remarkable as Eat The Book, who is trained by David Dunne, had never won a race before and had hurt himself so badly as a youngster that it was feared he might have to be put down.
Condon told RTE Radio 1's Morning Ireland: "It was fantastic. Going to the last I knew, I know my horse very well and I knew that he would stay, so I knew if I got a good jump he'd win.
"He jumped the last and I found myself in front. Great experience. Riding point to points and riding in races, there's always a lot of horses in front of you and you're pushing and shoving. This time there was nothing in front of me only this open space, a big green racetrack and it was just a lovely feeling.
"And then people were shouting. It was great. I got a great kick out of that."
On how he got involved in racing, Condon explained: "Growing up I started riding ponies down in my cousins when I was about 13 and then my dad got me a few riding lessons so I got into horses early enough.
"I worked with horses for awhile, then I worked in a shop and then I went to work for the HSE as a healthcare assistant and I stayed in that job. I'm still in it now.
"But I always rode horses part-time. I rode out for a lot of different trainers, but I'd never won. I'd been placed a few times.
"Of the horses that I had, a lot of them hadn't got the ability and some of them had a lot of problems.
"I used to only ride my own horses, now I did ride for different people at various stages but I didn't get that many rides because I was an amateur and I wasn't in the game full-time.
"It was on a part-time basis and I was competing against people that were there riding out seven days a week full-time so me only there three mornings a week, I was never going to get that many rides anyway.
"But the few rides I did have I done well enough on them."
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