The late Jockey Tom O’Brien
Irish jockey Tom O’Brien has died at the age of 39 after being diagnosed with cancer.
O’Brien rode more than 1,000 winners in Britain and Ireland, including two at the Cheltenham Festival and two Welsh Grand Nationals.
A nephew of trainer Aidan O’Brien, he was a mainstay of Philip Hobbs’ Minehead operation, joining as a teenager and staying until his retirement in 2023.
Riding the Hobbs-trained Thyme Hill, he won the Liverpool Hurdle in 2021 and the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase in 2022.
Hobbs, who now shares the Minehead yard with Johnson White, paid tribute to his former rider. “It’s very sad, particularly for his wife Hayley and two young children,” he said.
He recalled that O’Brien arrived from Ireland having never ridden in a race, but it soon became clear he was talented. “He was always very reliable and a very good bloke. There’s lots of good memories and there were lots of winners,” Hobbs said.
Hobbs added that he had kept in touch with O’Brien since his retirement, as the jockey lived only half an hour away. “He was only in our yard about three weeks ago,” he said.