Taaffe, Pat (1930–92), jump jockey and trainer, was born 9 March 1930 in Rathcoole, Co. Dublin, a son of Tom Taaffe, breeder and trainer of Rathcoole, and his wife Catherine (née Nugent). Sending out flat and national hunt horses from his Rathcoole stables, Tom Taaffe won an Aintree Grand National with Mr What in 1958. Pat’s younger brother Thomas ‘Toss’ Taaffe (1933–2019) was twice Ireland’s champion jump jockey (1956–7) and rode Olympia to victory in the 1960 Irish Grand National.
In the saddle from childhood, Pat accomplished his first win in 1947 on Ballincorona at the Phoenix Park racecourse, Dublin. In 1950 he was contracted to ride as a professional in the Co. Dublin stables of Thomas (Tom) Dreaper (qv), remaining until the end of his racing career in December 1970. The introspective head jockey and equable trainer were well matched; Taaffe especially valued Dreaper’s tact and judgment in a business not noted for sympathetic work relations. Taaffe first came to the fore as a jockey with a slew of wins and placings on Teapot II (trained by Clem Magnier) during 1953. In July 1954 he won the Irish Grand National on Royal Approach. The following year he achieved the double, in the Irish Grand National and the Grand National at Aintree, mounted on Umm and Quare Times respectively.
The aesthetics of his efficient but gawky horsemanship attracted dubious comment. Unusually tall for a jump jockey, he had to ride short, particularly in a finishing burst, giving the impression –according to one journalist – of carrying out an indecent manoeuvre ‘on a box of red hot tin tacks’ (Times, 8 July 1992). He excelled at the task of facing horses into the jump, taking them over the most formidable barriers without risk or fuss. His races were won less by frenzied work in the straight than by sensible tactics well before the finish, together with clean, reliable jumping. He suffered comparatively few serious falls in his career, but one at Kilbeggan in August 1956 fractured his skull, nearly killing him. Even though he resumed riding that November he suffered recurring bouts of concussion and amnesia, and his personality changed for five years.
Winning the Irish Grand National again in 1959 and 1961, he came into his prime between 1962 and 1968. This coincided with the triumphant maturity of the remarkable Irish-born and Irish-trained Arkle (1957–70). Taaffe first rode Arkle in a hurdle race at Naas in March 1962 and was the only jockey to ride him in steeplechases (races over fences). He trained Arkle in steeplechasing during the off-season in 1962–3, bringing the horse to a high pitch of confidence and skill. Together, they went on to win twenty-two out of twenty-six steeplechases from 1962 to 1966; they also won the two hurdles they contested.
While fortunate to have such an extraordinary mount, Taaffe was also one of the few riders capable of bringing out his full potential. In the clash between Arkle and Mill House at Newbury in early 1963, a skid on landing at one of the later fences cost Arkle the race, one of the rare lapses by rider or horse in either career. In their next encounter in the 1964 Cheltenham Gold Cup, Taaffe struck at the second last fence to sweep irresistibly past Mill House, winning by more than five lengths and vindicating for good the rumours of his prowess. During the next two years only the contrivances of the handicapper could put a stop to their gallop: in Ireland a dual handicap system was put into operation, one to take effect only when Arkle ran. Despite the burden of extra weights, Arkle under Taaffe almost invariably won, taking the Cheltenham Gold Cup three times in succession (1964–6), winning two Hennessy Gold Cups, and once succeeding in the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park. Taaffe also won the Irish Grand National in 1966 on Flyingbolt, also from the Dreaper stables.
After Arkle was forced into retirement by an injury sustained in December 1966, Taaffe won another Cheltenham Gold Cup (1968) with Fort Leney in a breakneck-finish. In 1970, as a magnificent finale, he captured the National Hunt Two-Mile Champions Chase at Cheltenham on Straight Fort followed by the Aintree Grand National on Gay Trip. Upon his retirement, he was by consensus the finest Irish national hunt jockey in memory. He finished with four Cheltenham Gold Cups (1964–66, 1968), two Aintree Grand Nationals (1955, 1970) and six Irish Grand Nationals (1954, 1955, 1959, 1961, 1964, 1966). He had twenty-five wins at the Cheltenham Festival, his notable victories there including five wins in the National Hunt Two-Mile Champions Chase (later the Queen Mother Champion Chase), five in the Broadway Novices’ Chase, three in the Cathcart Challenge Cup (later the Ryanair Chase), two in the Gloucester Hurdle (later the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle) and two in the National Hunt Handicap Chase (later the Festival Hurdle). At Leopardstown he won the Leopardstown Chase twice and the Hennessy Cup twice. He won every national hunt race of consequence and was Ireland’s champion jump jockey nine times (1952–5, 1961–4, 1966; he shared the title in 1962 and in 1963).
Retiring in December 1970, he set up a training stables in Straffan, Co. Kildare, raising Captain Christy to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup (1974) and two King George VI Chases (1974–5). Pat Taaffe died in Dublin on 7 July 1992, a year after a heart transplant operation. In 1955 he married Molly Lyons from Navan, Co. Meath; they had three daughters and two sons. His eldest son, Tom Taaffe (b. 1963), was a leading Irish national hunt jockey and trainer, saddling Kicking King to win a Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2005.