Padraig Beggy
English and Irish Derby-winning jockey Padraig (pronounced Paw-rig) Beggy was born in Dunboyne, County Meath, on 30 March 1986. He was not from a racing family; his father was a train engineer, his mother was a cleaner at the school he attended in Dunboyne. As his sister was allergic to horses, there was not even a pony around the place.
However, the family lived close to Fairyhouse and his interest in horse racing developed on childhood visits to the racecourse with his father, who went racing when he could and never missed watching Cheltenham and Aintree in the local pub.
Padraig first sat on a horse when he was 14 while working for local trainer Owen Weldon. He graduated from the Racing Academy and Centre of Education (RACE) in 2003 and rode his first winner on 23 July of that year on the Seamus Fahey-trained Red Venus, a 10-1 chance, in the Derrinstown Stud Apprentice Handicap at Naas.
He continued his apprenticeship with Kevin Prendergast, enjoying notable success in big handicaps early in his career on the likes of the Prendergast-trained Ulfah, Noel Meade’s Sugarhoneybaby and Green Lassy for Ger Lyons. He spent eight seasons riding in Ireland, achieving 22 winners in 2010, his most successful year there, but once he lost his claim, the rides dried up.
Viewing Ireland as a closed shop in terms of opportunities, Padraig spent a winter in India, riding 15 winners. He moved to England in 2011 and was based with Yorkshire trainer John Quinn for one year, and then with David Evans the following year. He rode eight winners before the trail went cold again.
Next stop was Malaysia, where he rode one winner, then Australia, which produced a further 31 victories in the Sydney area. However, in 2014 he received a 15-month ban after testing positive for cocaine. To complicate the issue, he provided two false explanations for the results, before eventually confessing that he had deliberately taken the drug while at a barbecue three nights previously. Having been away from home for four years, he boarded a plane back to Ireland to see his family.
Two friends who worked at Aidan O’Brien’s Ballydoyle stable introduced him to the trainer, and, in January 2015, O’Brien gave him a job riding out. O’Brien encouraged him to work hard, promising he would be repaid for his efforts, and began to give him rides in big races as a result.
He became a key member of the backroom team in Ballydoyle and rode his first Group race winner on O’Brien’s filly Hydrangea in the 1,000 Guineas Trial at Leopardstown in early April, 2017. He finished third on her in the Irish 1,000 Guineas the following month.
With several other jockeys ahead of him in the stable’s pecking order, until the 2017 Derby, he had only ridden three winners in two and a half years with O’Brien. However, the trainer ran six horses in the 2017 Derby at Epsom and Padraig was given the ride of Wings Of Eagles, at 40-1 the fifth string according to the betting. It was only his second ride in Britain in five years. Despite the long odds the horse won, denying his better-fancied stablemate Cliffs Of Moher, the mount of Ryan Moore, giving O’Brien a sixth win in the race.
Padraig gained further Derby glory when landing the 2019 Irish Derby on the Aidan O’Brien-trained Sovereign. A 33/1 chance, Sovereign made all the running for a six-length success over Epsom Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck, his stable companion and the 5-4 favourite. It was Padraig’s sole success of the season – but what a race in which to achieve it. He had ridden Sovereign in the English Derby, again making the running before fading in the straight, finishing in tenth place.
He rode two winners from 72 mounts in 2020, the first on 9 June on the O’Brien-trained Cormorant in the Group 3 Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial Stakes at Leopardstown. The second came on 22 October aboard 11-1 chance Sil Ver Klass, trained Tony Martin, in a 1m 6f handicap Navan. It proved to be his last success.
Although no announcement has so far been made confirming his retirement, Padraig has not ridden in public since finishing ninth of 15 on Aidan O’Brien’s filly More Beautiful in the Group 3 1,000 Guineas Trial Stakes at Leopardstown on 11 April 2021.
