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There has certainly been no place like home for Meath jockey Robert Whearty this year.

If you threw a tenner on each of his rides at Navan in 2025 you would now be €120 in profit right now, while he has also hit the back of the net at Fairyhouse and celebrated a winner on his doorstep at Bellewstown.

The 21-year-old Bellewstown native is attached to the Gavin Cromwell stable, where he rides out four mornings a week, but he also does one morning with Ger Lyons and another with Noel Meade. When asked how he got into racing in the first place, Whearty replied: "I've been around horses all my life and only live down the road from Bellewstown.”

Whearty has struck up a sensational relationship with Big Gossey in recent years and the pair teamed up to land the big Bold Lad Sprint Handicap at 16-1 during the Irish Champions Festival at the Curragh in 2023. That is just one of four victories Whearty has enjoyed aboard Big Gossey, with the rider describing the grey gelding as a "legend". It is no coincidence that Whearty has been making hay around Navan of late as the track is a personal favourite of his. "It's just so fair," he said of the Proudstown venue.

"That's what I love about it. It gives every horse a fair chance and the thing I find about Navan is that the best horse almost always wins.

“You don't need excuses around Navan. Both over jumps and on the Flat it stages some great racing, too. I really enjoy riding there."

Since his first winner in Bellewstown in 2021, Whearty’s career in the saddle has gone from strength to strength. Whearty has already had 92 winners in Ireland and a winner over in Britain to boot.

That success across the water came on board Sixandahalf in a staying handicap at Newmarket last August, where Whearty timed his challenge to perfection. "I just want to keep my head down and ride as many winners as I can, keep building up my profile," Whearty replied, when asked about his hopes for the future. He couldn't be based in a better yard anyway. "He's some operator," Whearty said of Balrath-based Cromwell.

"He keeps on improving the place and keeps on improving the calibre of horses coming into the place, as well. He has got some really lovely Flat horses to look forward to over the coming months and years."

Whearty has plenty to forward to himself. His reputation is rising.