Peter Cahalin

Peter Cahalin

Peter Joseph Cahalin plied his trade in Ireland before finishing his career in England during the late 1940s, winning seven races and having two rides in the Grand National. 

Peter served his apprenticeship with John Kirwan at Lower Grange, Gowran, Co. Kilkenny, and rode his first winner for him on Roman Bird in the Foxrock Chase at Leopardstown on October 17, 1936. Four days later he won the Charleville Handicap Chase at Mallow on Boy Of The Barrow, also trained by Kirwan.

It was during the 1938/39 season that Peter really began to gain a foothold. He rode out his claim with a double at Waterford & Tramore on Easter Monday, April 10, 1939, winning the Tally-Ho Maiden Hurdle on Munroe and the Waterford Handicap Hurdle on Derrykyle, both for John Kirwan. Three days later he recorded another double, this time at Powerstown Park (known today as Clonmel), aboard Mr Freezer in the Slieveanon Maiden Hurdle and Toicat in the Southern Hunt Chase, again both for Kirwan.

He enjoyed a particularly successful campaign in 1939/40, winning around 20 races. They included five successive two-mile chase victories on Munroe between July and October, at Killarney, Tuam, Miltown-Malbay, Claremorris and Powerstown Park; the Galway Blazers Handicap Chase on Grange Cross; and a pair of mile-and-a-half handicap hurdles on Mr Freezer at Naas in November and Leopardstown on Boxing Day. 

In July and August 1940 Peter won a mile-and-a-half maiden hurdle and two two-mile chases on Homeland; while between May and September Peter won three chases on Park Knight, two at Powerstown Park and one at Listowel. 

He recorded two of his most important successes in back-to-back renewals of the valuable Naas Chase at that Co. Kildare venue, on John Kirwan’s ten-year-old Heirdom in 1942, and on Willie O’Grady’s eight-year-old Tontonvilla in 1943. He also won Limerick’s Dunraven Cup Chase aboard the O’Grady-trained Shannon Scheme on Boxing Day 1942.  

His major successes for Kirwan during 1944 included the Kildare Chase at Naas on Prince Jack and the Leopardstown Chase on Heirdom. Heirdom won the following year’s Irish Grand National, ridden that day by Jack Maguire, but Peter was reunited with him for the 1946 Grand National at Aintree, only for the then fourteen-year-old veteran to fall at the tenth fence. Peter fared no better in the 1947 Grand National when his mount, Patrickswell, was carried out by a loose horse. 

He rode his final winner in Ireland for trainer Tom O’Sullivan on Whale Harbour in the Sutton Hurdle at Baldoyle on 28 June 1947. He recorded his first win in England in September that same year at Folkestone, when Loyal Monarch, owned by the redoubtable Miss Dorothy Paget and trained by Fulke Walwyn, won the Westgate Handicap Chase by a head from Brokerstown, the mount of fellow Irish-based jockey Eddie Newman.

Peter won four more races that season, however his ride on Sun Bird in the 1947 King George VI Chase ended with a fall at the halfway point. He did not ride a winner during the 1948/49 campaign but added two more the following season. His last victory came on Unconditional Surrender, trained by Fred Rimell, in the Minehead Optional Selling Chase at Taunton on November 3, 1949. He continued to hold a licence until the 1951/52 season but had no further success.

Peter Cahalin’s British winners were, in chronological order:

1. Loyal Monarch, Folkestone, September 8, 1947

2. Grecian Victory, Hereford, September 27, 1947

3, Stormy Petrel, Wincanton, October 4, 1947

4. Scotch Plaid, Worcester, December 5, 1948

5. Jock, Cheltenham, January 17, 1948

6. Oliver Cromwell, Cheltenham, October 7, 1949

7. Unconditional Surender, Taunton, November 3, 1949