Jockey Profile

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From Trim, County Meath, Colin Keane is Ireland's outstanding Flat jockey. He is a three-time champion and in 2021 set a new record for the most winners ridden in an Irish Flat season. 

Keane has been stable jockey to Ger Lyons since the summer of 2014. He finished runner-up to the late Pat Smullen in the jockeys' championship the following year but secured his first title in 2017, winning it again in 2020 and retaining his crown in 2021.  

Colin rode 54 winners when crowned champion apprentice in 2014 having finished second to Connor King the previous season. He rode his first Group winner when successful on Brendan Brackan in the Group 3 Solonaway Stakes at the Curragh on September 15, 2013 and his career has sky-rocketed ever since.

His fine association with Lyons has yielded a number of significant wins. Early among them was the Group 2 GAIN Railway Stakes with Medicine Jack at the Curragh in June, 2016 and a bigger success came their way when Ardhoomey captured the Group 2 Derrinstown Stud Flying Five Stakes at the same venue on Longines Irish Champions Weekend the following September. The pair would go on to share Group 1 and Classic success only a few years later.

Colin rode his first Group 1 winner when partnering the Tony Martin-trained Laganore to success in the Premio Lydia Tesio at Capannelle in Rome on Sunday, October 29, 2017.

Just two weeks later, Colin was crowned champion jockey for the first time when he got the better of an epic duel with Pat Smullen to land the 2017 title. A final day double at Naas on Sunday, November 5 saw him claim the championship with 100 winners, 12 clear of the Offaly legend.  

Keane and Lyons shared their first Group 1 success together when Siskin won the Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh in August 2019. Shortly afterwards they combined to win the first running of the £1 million Ebor Handicap at York with Mustajeer. Keane rode 103 winners in Ireland in the 2019 season and finished second in the championship, eight winners behind Donnacha O'Brien. 

Siskin gave Keane and Lyons a first Classic victory when taking the Tattersalls Irish 2,000 Guineas at the Curragh on June 12, 2020. The race was run a little later in the season due to the Covid-19 pandemic. A little over four weeks later, Even So gave the pair a second Classic success when taking the Juddmonte Irish Oaks at the Curragh. Another Group 1 success came on the Johnny Murtagh-trained Champers Elysees in the Matron Stakes at Leopardstown in September of the same year. 

Colin rode the first four-timer of his career when successful on Ecliptical (4/1, Ger Lyons), A Step Too Far (2/1 fav, Kieran Cotter), Misty Millie (6/1, Garvan Donnelly) and Jeff Kidder (7/2, Noel Meade) at Bellewstown on Wednesday, August 26, 2020, a day that was to reignite his 2020 jockeys' championship challenge. 

At one stage during that season, Shane Foley led Keane by 22 winners in the title race, but on the back of his Bellewstown four-timer, Keane went on to ride a remarkable 26 winners (compared to 11 for Foley) in September and an October haul of 27 (compared to Foley's 19) saw him enjoy a healthy advantage heading into the final days of the term. 

With both men cutting their seasons short to ride at the Breeders' Cup, Keane secured his second title at Naas on Sunday, November 1. A winner on his final ride of the season at the Curragh the following afternoon saw Keane end up with a tally of 100, eight ahead of Shane Foley. 

Colin rounded off a superb 2020 when landing a first Breeders' Cup success at Keeneland in November. He partnered Tarnawa to win the Breeders' Cup Turf for trainer Dermot Weld, a first winner at the meeting for the legendary Curragh trainer. 

Colin rode his first Group 1 winner for Aidan O'Brian when taking the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud on Broome in early July 2021. 

The record books were rewritten at Navan on Saturday, August 28, 2021 where Colin notched up the fastest century of winners in a Flat season in Ireland on the Ger Lyons-trained Barretta. It was the fourth time that Colin rode 100 winners in the Flat jockeys' championship a season in Ireland and he reached the milestone 10 days quicker than Joseph O'Brien did during his record-breaking season in 2013.

Keane immediately set his sights on bettering O'Brien's record tally of 126 winners, a feat he achieved when landing the Listed Hatstone Solicitors Waterford Testimonial Stakes at the Curragh on Sunday, October 10. He ended the season with a tally of 141 winners, easily securing his third championship, 58 winners clear of runner-up Shane Foley. 

Colin partnered Ger Lyons' 1,000th winner as a trainer when Offiah scored at Roscommon in August 2021.