The greatest Irish jockeys in the history of horse racing
Ireland has produced riders out of all proportion to its size. A country of around five million people gave the sport its most prolific jump jockey, a four-time winner of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and the first woman to win the Grand National. For anyone who follows the form closely enough to bet on upcoming races, these are the names that keep surfacing in the record books.
Pat Taaffe
Taaffe rode from the 1940s until 1970 and is remembered above all as the only jockey to partner Arkle over fences. The pair won 22 of the 26 steeplechases they contested together.
He took four Cheltenham Gold Cups, three on Arkle in 1964, 1965 and 1966 and a fourth on Fort Leney in 1968, along with two Grand Nationals on Quare Times in 1955 and Gay Trip in 1970. Six Irish Grand Nationals between 1954 and 1966 filled out the domestic side of the record.
Pat Eddery
The Newbridge-born Eddery was champion jockey in Britain 11 times and finished with 4,632 winners there, a figure only a handful of Flat riders have approached. He won the Epsom Derby three times, on Grundy in 1975, Golden Fleece in 1982 and Quest For Fame in 1990.
His four wins in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, with Detroit, Rainbow Quest, Dancing Brave and Trempolino between 1980 and 1987, certainly live long in the memory.
Michael “Mick” Kinane
Kinane’s 34-year career, which ended in December 2009, brought more than 1,500 winners worldwide and 13 Irish champion jockey titles. He won the Epsom Derby on Commander In Chief in 1993, Galileo in 2001 and Sea The Stars in 2009, a spread of 16 years between first and last.
The 1993 Melbourne Cup on Vintage Crop made him the first rider to land that race with a northern hemisphere horse, and Sea The Stars gave him the Arc in his final season.
Sir Anthony “AP” McCoy
McCoy, from Moneyglass in County Antrim, holds the record nobody is near catching: 4,358 winners, and 20 consecutive British jump jockey championships from 1995-96 until his retirement in 2015. He was the first rider to reach 4,000.
Two Cheltenham Gold Cups came with Mr Mulligan in 1997 and Synchronised in 2012, two Champion Hurdles with Make A Stand and Binocular, and the Grand National arrived at the 15th attempt on Don’t Push It in 2010. He was knighted in 2016.
Ruby Walsh
Walsh retired on 1 May 2019 with 2,767 winners and a Cheltenham Festival record that looks unassailable. His 59 Festival winners put him 23 clear of Barry Geraghty in second place, and he was leading rider at the meeting 11 times, including five years running from 2013.
He won the Grand National on Papillon in 2000 and Hedgehunter in 2005, the Cheltenham Gold Cup twice on Kauto Star, and four Champion Hurdles, two of them on Hurricane Fly.
Rachael Blackmore
Blackmore’s total of 575 winners is the smallest here, and it bought a set of firsts nobody else can claim. The Tipperary rider became the first woman to win the Champion Hurdle, on Honeysuckle in 2021, the first to win the Grand National, on Minella Times a few weeks later, and the first to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup, on A Plus Tard in 2022. She was leading rider at the 2021 Cheltenham Festival and retired in May 2025.
The ones just outside
Kieren Fallon’s six British championships and 16 British Classics would make a longer list, as would Barry Geraghty’s 43 Cheltenham Festival winners and Johnny Murtagh’s run of Irish Derby victories. So would Martin Molony, rated by many who saw him ride as the finest of the lot before a fall ended his career in 1951.
Anyone reading horse racing odds today will still find Irish names on most big-race shortlists. That is less a coincidence than a consequence of a small industry that concentrates its best horses in a handful of yards, and of a riding tradition that has been feeding Britain and the wider world for a century. Betting is for over-18s only.