Local jockey finds his Gangnam fame

Local jockey finds his Gangnam fame

1 January 2013

SINGING ‘Hey Sexy Horsie’ instead of ‘Hey Sexy Lady’, a Downpatrick jockey is at the centre of a ‘Gangnam Style’ internet parody sensation.

Gerald Tumelty’s ‘Jockey Style’ has had over 600,000 hits on YouTube with its take on the single by charismatic South Korean musician PSY.

‘Gangnam Style’ pokes fun at the supposedly chic lifestyle associated with the Gangnam district of Seoul, and the song and its accompanying video, with comic dance moves, went viral since then topping the charts of more than 30 countries.

So with very silly dance moves suddenly cool ‘Jockey Style’ is one of a number of Gangnam parodies currently online.

As well as their catchy chorus line, in this particular video the jockeys can be seen limbering over fences and dancing in the weighing room in a bid to show a more light-hearted side to the racing world.

Gerald, who is currently based at Alan King Racing at Barbury Castle Stables near Swindon, stars in the video with Sam Jones, Charlie Huxley and Colin Bolger and David Crosse. He said, however, they had no idea the video would be so popular.

“There is a website, lovetheraces.com, over here trying to promote racing and it was seen as a bit of fun,” said Gerald. “One of the other jockeys writes a blog for them and that was how it got started, he got a couple of lads together.

“We were well paid to do it, which made the difference between saying yes and no. I hadn’t seen the video before, though I had heard the song, so we went to the pub to watch it and had a few beers to ease the pain!

“Luke Harvey who filmed it we know as a presenter so we had a good laugh.

“There have been a few of these parodies now, Eton College did one for instance.”

Gerald continued: “I thought people involved with racing would maybe see it but we had no idea how many.

“To think over 600,000 people have seen it is unbelievable. The first day we put it on Twitter and got 20,000 hits in the first six or seven hours.”