SURELY the greatest compliment Kevin Manning has ever been paid was when AP McCoy described him as the most dedicated jockey he had ever seen.
The 55-year-old ironman - known as the professional's professional - brought the curtain down on a long and successful career at Galway after riding Vocal Studies to win a low key maiden.
Incredibly, Manning has been a jockey in Ireland for the past 40 years, riding his first winner for trainer Jim Bolger at the Curragh in 1983 on Keynes in an Apprentice Handicap that also featured one Kieren Fallon.
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It was a golden period for flat racing, a time when the legendary names like Lester Piggott and Pat Eddery were in their prime and his departure now very much signals the end of an era for that generation of jockey.
Manning has been associated with Bolger from the very start to the very end.
He set out as a 15-year-old rookie when the Wexford man was still based in Clonsilla and ended it four decades later having been employed as his stable jockey since 1993 when Christy Roche retired.
Bolger is also Manning's father-in-law, the Dubliner married his daughter Una, and their trainer/jockey partnership was the longest running in world racing.
Outside of riding he’s also been a massive part of Bolger’s Coolcullen base and speculation will now be rife that he might one day take over the training from the 80-year-old.
At 5ft10in Manning was far too tall to be a flat jockey but that steely dedication and professionalism saw him forge a brilliant career in the saddle that took him to the dizzy heights of Derby successes at Epsom and the Curragh.
Manning and Bolger were always a solid and successful duo in Ireland but it was through brilliant horses like Dawn Approach, New Approach, Finsceal Beo and Teofilo that Manning really made a name for himself in the UK as a big race winner.
That spell around 15 years ago was a boom time for Bolger's yard, New Approach and his son Dawn Approach winning eight Group 1 races, four of them Classics, between them.
Perhaps it was New Approach’s 2008 Derby win that Manning might consider the highlight.
A high stakes hold-up ride saw him cut through the field to a famous win for owner Princess Haya of Jordan.
"Kevin's ride was unbelievable. Jim (Bolger) said it was one of the great rides and if someone else had said that it might have been taken up more,” Christy Roche said in the aftermath.
“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."
Throughout that time and for his entire career, Manning remained a profoundly private individual, shunning the spotlight and media interview requests to fully focus on his riding.
He was hugely popular in the weigh-room though, the wafer-thin Manning a source of inspiration for dozens of jockeys to ride against him over the years.
"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," former champion jockey Roche told the Irish Times in 2008.
Manning was born in Kilsallaghan, North County Dublin, not far from the great Tom Dreaper establishment, with no background in racing with his father working at Dublin airport.
He began going to Bolgers when he was just 12 and built up enough experience through pony racing to be given his first ride in 1982 when aged just 15.
His first Grade 1 success came on Eva Luna in 1994 at the Phoenix Park and his last 26 years later on Mac Swiney at Doncaster.
His retirement was typically understated. A late season Monday at Galway is about as far removed from midsummer Classic action as it gets.
But that was Kevin Manning. Quiet and unassuming to the very end.
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