MAKE it to No 2 on the list and you must be doing something right. Stay there for 20 years and it is a testimony to longevity – but might leave a nagging doubt in the minds of some as to why that further step-up never came.

Seamie Heffernan shared the Irish apprentices title in 1994, was runner-up the following year, and in 1996 he joined Aidan O’Brien when he moved into the Ballydoyle stables from where the trainer has sent out a torrent of champions.

Heffernan was second jockey to Christy Roche and he has occupied the same status during the tenures of Michael Kinane, Jamie Spencer, Kieren Fallon, Johnny Murtagh, Joseph O’Brien and now Ryan Moore in the No 1 job.

His response to being overlooked has been to keep his head down and to continue ride in his no-frills way that eliminates errors to the point that they have joined the white rhino and straight-

talking politician on the endangered species list – while all the while retaining a sense of self-

deprecating humour and realism.

Heffernan said: “I took up the job as second jockey and I didn’t really expect anything else. I’ve never really thought like that.

I always thought I was very lucky to have the job there. If I get the good rides I just ride it like another race. They’ll either do one of two things – win or get beaten. When I ride the good horses at home there’s probably more pressure because Aidan asks us for our opinion and I have to get it right because that might decide which race a horse runs in. I’d be more inclined to think that Aidan feels sorry for me and gives me the odd chance now and again.”

Perhaps, but O’Brien gave an insight into the pressures on jockeys after Fame And Glory won the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot in 2011. He may be unfailingly polite to all but when explaining the difference in his relationship with Spencer during 2004 when he was stable jockey for one, tumultuous season before adding his name to those who had quit the hotseat, O’Brien admitted: “I can be a little intense sometimes.”

But Heffernan has seen it all, done a fair bit and has – rather than T-shirts – more than 70 Group-race winners to prove he is more than capable of the understudy role he is currently reprising while Moore is on the injured list.

Heffernan and O’Brien go back a long way. “I knew him from when we both worked on the Curragh for a small trainer, PJ Finn,” the jockey said. “We discuss the horse, the tactics. Races can change but as long as you come in and tell him what you think, that race is over and it’s on to the next race.”

Heffernan was due to race at

Arlington Park in Chicago last night where he won the Grade One Secretariat 12 months before on Highland Reel, a horse that has slowly worked his way up the pecking order at Ballydoyle to the point that he is first-choice for the Juddmonte International Stakes at York on Wednesday. Postponed is the favourite despite having never won when running over 10 furlongs but Highland Reel showed he might be ready for him after winning the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot last month.

Heffernan said: “He’s a four-year-old now so there’s a chance he’s at his strongest. You can knock the King George form but, on that Saturday, the best horses that trainers had were in the race.

“He’s a tough, hardened type of horse and he’s extremely straightforward. We couldn’t believe when the second and third horses pulled back and gave him a six-length lead and, the way the race worked out, he was going to be unbeatable from halfway.”