Brought up on the Curragh in County Kildare, Ireland, Neil Callan started his racing career as apprentice to local trainer Kevin Prendergast, but after two unsuccessful years, and just a handful of rides, crossed the Irish Sea to join Karl Burke at High Haven Stables in Newmarket. He rode his first winner for the yard, Dancing Lawyer, in an apprentices’ handicap at Warwick on May 4, 1998. Champion apprentice in 1999, with 65 winners, Callan subsequently became stable jockey to North Yorkshire trainer Kevin Ryan, who would provide him with his breakthrough Group 1 winners, Amadeus Wolf in the Middle Park Stakes at Newmarket and Palace Episode in the Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster, in 2005.
That season, Callan finished runner-up in the senior jockeys’ championship with 151 winners and did so again in 2007 with a career-best 170 winners. He first went to Hong Kong in 2010, but the move became permanent and he enjoyed ’10 good years’ in the Far East before relocating, once again, to Newmarket to ride freelance. Following his return, Callan enjoyed his most successful season in 2023, when he rode 75 winners, including Triple Time, trained by Ryan, in the Queen Anne Stakes at Ascot. By that stage, he had already ridden his first Group 1 winner on British soil since 2013, Fonteyn, also trained by Ryan, in the Royal Bahrain Sun Chariot Stakes at Newmarket in 2022. Speaking of Bahrain, Callan was Champion Jockey in the island country three years running, in 2021/2022, 2022/2023 and 2023/24.
