'A Different Kind of Heartbeat': Adam Kirby Discusses the Buzz of Training

What is it they say about never meeting your heroes? To work in racing is a labour of love — at least it should be — and in the course of that work there are times when heroes are all around. Some disappoint, some delight.

Adam Kirby was perhaps an unlikely hero in his riding days. He certainly would have cast a sardonic look at anyone who called him a hero in his earshot, for he was a jockey firmly in the Ryan Moore school that rebuffs flummery and fanfare. But he must have been a punter's hero on many an occasion, with his dependability in delivering winners, and to the young jockeys coming through the ranks behind him, Kirby should been a God-like figure, such was his professionalism and work ethic. 

Meet him now and you will find that nothing has changed, apart from the fact that he no longer holds a jockey's licence. Even his retirement from the saddle was done with the minimum of fuss. In fact, there was no fuss at all, because there was no announcement, with confirmation only coming some 20 months after he had ridden in public for the final time.

Kirby could sometimes come across as a little gruff in his race-riding days, perhaps owing to a combination of his above-mentioned no-nonsense approach and the punishing regime his mind and body must have endured to ensure his near-six-foot frame carried as little weight as possible. In person, however, there is no doubt that he falls into the category of delight rather than disappointment.

His own delight is derived from being around horses. That has been a constant throughout his life. From riding out on Saturdays for James Fanshawe as a 12-year-old schoolboy to winning the Derby 21 years later while also running a successful breaking and pre-training business with his partner Megan Evans, thoroughbreds have continued to loom large and do so now more than ever. Last October, Kirby stated his aim to start training, and on March 11, his first runner, Tuscan Point, became his first winner.

Over the coming weeks he will have a rash of follow-up runners, and the one perhaps preoccupying his thoughts most at the moment is Bill The Bull. The son of Coulsty will become Kirby's first two-year-old runner in Saturday's Brocklesby Stakes and, like the race itself, he is named in honour of the late trainer Bill Turner. The colt could face up to three runners trained by Turner's daughter, Kathy.

“I rang Kathy and asked if I could call him Bill,” Kirby says. “I wanted to call him Wild Bill but that was already taken. She'd said she'd support it, which I thought was nice, and to top it all off they have changed the name of the race, which I think is fantastic for Bill. He was a lovely guy and deserves it. I didn't ride that often for him but he was one of them people you always looked forward to seeing.”

The champion jockey on the all-weather in 2012/13, Kirby rode more than 100 winners in nine consecutive seasons between 2011 and 2019, those years including his Group 1 successes aboard Harry Angel, Lethal Force, Profitable, and My Dream Boat. Two more Group 1 winners would follow in 2020 and, like the above, they were also for his key ally Clive Cox, trainer of the Middle Park Stakes winner Supremacy and Commonwealth Cup winner Golden Horde. 

Arguably the best was saved for last when, in 2021, Kirby was asked to partner Adayar in the Derby by Charlie Appleby after losing the ride on the better-fancied John Leeper when Frankie Dettori suddenly became available. It was a delicious twist of fate, one made all the sweeter by the fact that the jockey had been the first person ever to swing his leg over Adayar, who is one of a growing number of Godolphin Group 1 winners to have been broken in by Kirby. Evans is no bit-part player in the Vicarage Farm operation either. Her father Dave has long trained in Wales and she herself has a wealth of experience in stud and sales work.

Life at Kirby's Vicarage Farm in Kirtling | Emma Berry

A crowning achievement it may have been in Kirby's riding career, but winning the Derby was then. Now he is fully focused on future rather than past glories.

Kirby has lived at the 80-acre Vicarage Farm in Kirtling, six miles from Newmarket, since he was four. His late father Maurice bought the farm in the early 1990s from another Classic-winning jockey-turned-trainer, Frankie Durr. It is today a hive of activity but one which is somehow devoid of hustle and bustle. Think Darling Buds of May, even if it is still March. Along with the horses on site, there are sheep, some newborn lambs, dogs, rabbits and budgerigars. A haven for animal lovers, it is a peaceful oasis for those fortunate enough to call it home.

“I obviously grew up here with horses, so I'm very lucky,” admits Kirby, who adds, regarding the start of his training career, “Hopefully so far it's been respectable. It was nice to get a winner on the board, and I hope this week will tell a lot of tales. There's a few different horses to run this week, so hopefully one of them will come up at the door.”

This particular morning, with Britain's Flat turf season just days away, Kirby has driven two groups of horses in to Newmarket for an educational away day on the Railway Land grass gallop alongside the Al Bahathri. Old habits die hard. There is no stopping between lots for breakfast, but on exiting the horsebox each time a cigarette bobs from his lips. Wash down, tack up, and he's off again. No wonder there is still not a pick on his willowy frame. 

Some of the Kirby string in action on Newmarket Heath | Emma Berry

Back at Vicarage Farm, where some of his nearest neighbours include Juddmonte at Banstead Manor Stud and the Cumanis' Fittocks Stud, Kirby prepares to hop aboard the strong little colt who has been well named as Bill The Bull.

“It's a race I have always wanted to win,” he says of the Brocklesby. “It'll be a hard race to win. There's obviously a lot of proper entries in there, but we won't run scared, we'll take our chance.

“I think I've done enough with him without cooking him — he will improve.”

Now their rival in the ranks, Kirby has plenty of trainers relying on the services of his pre-training business, which is conducted from separate barns. These include Charlie Appleby, Richard Spencer, Simon and Ed Crisford, and George Boughey.

“I've always loved the pre-training and I still do,” he says. “And that's very much still a thing. We're still keeping that going. All the horses in training will be exercised by around 11 o'clock, and then we'll move on to the pre-trainers and they'll go all afternoon.

“I have some great support, but no-one's prepared you for what comes next after you've been racing every day and you've had that adrenaline and that heartbeat.”

He continues, “No jockey is prepared to never get that adrenaline buzz again. I did think about jumping out of a few planes, but I'm not brave enough for that, so I need to get a different kind of heartbeat.”

Training also brings a different relationship with the horses to that experienced by jockeys, who may only spend mere minutes aboard some of their mounts. That starts with the recruiting process, and Kirby backed his own judgement when buying at the yearling sales last autumn. 

“If they go wrong, then you've only got to answer to yourself. We hope doesn't happen, but we all know it can,” he says.

“It was hard for me because I had to buy them with my own money. So, when it's your own money, you have to be sure that you like them.

“You get to know their personalities. Once you've ridden them once, you've got three parts of an idea of what's going on but when you're training you get to know their personalities a bit more – and worry about them more.”

One horse not giving him too much cause for concern appears to be Bill The Bull, who saunters around the farm alongside an older stable-mate and is described by his rider-trainer as “a great little fella”.

Kirby says, “It's exciting, that's why I'm looking forward to Saturday, especially for him, because it'll be nice to see him have his first run, and I'm not going to say he's going to win, by any means, but if he turns up and runs well I'll be very pleased with him.”

He adds, “It's the next chapter, and as long as we get some support and keep everything running smoothly, I can't see why we can't get better.”

Modesty may underpin Kirby's carefully measured sentences but for the man who has never really left home, he has already gone far. The journey is not over yet.