Pat Taaffe

Patrick ‘Pat’ Taaffe was born in Rathcoole, County Dublin on March 9, 1930, will always be best remembered as the jockey of Arkle, arguably the greatest steeplechaser of all time, whom he rode to victory in 22 of his 26 starts over fences.

Together, Taaffe and Arkle won the Hennessy Gold Cup (twice), King George VI Chase, Whitbread Gold Cup and Irish Grand National. Most notable among their many achievements, though, was winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup three years running in 1964, 1965 and 1966. Between his second and third victories, Taaffe told the ‘Irish Independent’, “”I’ve ridden Arkle since he was five years old and he’s getting better all the time. He has the ability and speed of four or five horses put into one.”

Arkle fractured a pedal bone in the King George VI Chase at Kempton in December 1966 and never raced again but, in 1968, Taaffe won the Cheltenham Gold Cup again on Fort Leney, who was trained, like Arkle, by Tom Dreaper. In fact, that victory made Taaffe the leading jockey in the history of the Cheltenham Gold Cup, which he would remain until Paul Townend rode his fifth winner of the prestigious steeplechase, Gaelic Warrior, in 2026.

Unusually tall for a jockey, at 6’2”, Taaffe rode with an unusually short length of stirrup for a man of his height, leading to criticism in some quarters, but his horsemanship and, in particular, his ability to present a horse at a fence were undeniable. As such, he proved the perfect foil for the horse who became known simply as ‘Himself’, but was in no way a one-trick pony. Taaffe was, in fact, Irish Champion National Hunt Jockey nine times, including two shared titles, and rode 25 winners at the Cheltenham Festival, where he remains the fifth most successful jockey of all time, behind Ruby Walsh, Barry Geraghty, Paul Townend and Tony McCoy.

It should not be forgotten that, following his retirement from the saddle in 1970, Pat Taafe also trained a Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, in the form of Captain Christy, who won the 1974 renewal in the hands of Bobby Beasley, despite a near-catastrophic blunder at the final fence.