News
Thursday November 12 2026
Obituary: Tom O'Brien
Horseman Tom O’Brien is a sad loss to a sport to which he contributed as rider, colleague, companion and official. The news of his death from cancer at the tender age of 39 has cast a downer not just on the close confines of the Weighing Room, but on the sport at large.
A Wexford man
A Wexford man with impeccable racing credentials, he was a nephew to Aidan O’Brien, where he started a career in racing at Ballydoyle. Before moving to the UK like many Irish riders before him, at the age of 18 in 2004. He found a slot in the machine at Philip Hobbs’ west country yard outside Minehead as stable amateur, riding 32 winners in the 2005-6 season, as champion.
It was obvious from the start that he could ride a bit, but becoming a successful jockey is not merely about riding talent. An easy nature, the ability to get on with people, and a dry wit enamoured him to contemporaries, owners and other trainers too, never mind future wife Hayley.
The master of Ballydoyle relayed to the Racing Post, "Tomas was an unusually special and kind type of fellow. Anyone who would have had anything to do with him would know exactly what I mean when I say that, and Hayley is a very special girl too.
"He was a great rider and a great horseman, and he was always a very straight fellow with the utmost integrity. He was just an exceptional fellow, really. We're all devastated by what's happened."
Champion Amateur then Conditional
First coming to prominence in the 2006-7 season, he was crowned Champion Conditional with 105 winners, a record no other has yet surpassed. Yet he remained as second jockey at Sandhills, picking up what Richard Johnson didn’t take up. Whilst he was first choice for many, including West Country luminaries like Colin Tizzard, no-one came calling with a lucrative first rider position until Johnson’s retirement, when he took on the primary role for Hobbs.
Over 1,000 winners stand testament to one of the foremost riders of his generation, a quietly understated man who let his performance in the saddle do the talking. Few are those in our sport who prompt a feature film around one of their rides, but Tom’s achievement in winning a Welsh National with Dream Alliance became a Christmas feel-good film in 2020 when Dream Horse was released, starring Damien Lewis and Toni Colette, 11 years after his original success in the race.
The Welsh National was a signature dish for O’Brien, who won it a second time 9 years later for Colin Tizzard on Elegant Escape. But it was far from the only top flight race in his compendium. Races over Aintree’s big fences, success came via consecutive victories for the Bowen family in the Topham Chase in 2011 and 2012, and in the Becher Chase. The nearest he achieved to Grand National success was a second to Silver Birch in 2007.
There were Cheltenham successes in a 2009 Fred Winter and toward the end of his career, a Pertemps Final in 2022. Topically, he won a Paddy Power at Cheltenham in 2020 with Coole Cody for Evan Williams and keen West Country supporter Wayne Clifford.
A family man
A personal milestone was achieved in 2021 with his thousandth winner, another 77 added before he hung up his boots at Sandown’s end of season meeting in April 2023 to become part of the BHA’s stewarding team, where his knowledge of the scene proved invaluable. But in terms of milestones, of greater importance to the man was his family. The birth of second son Toby made headlines as Tom dashed from riding a winner for guv’nor Hobbs at Exeter in March ’22 to the hospital to see Hayley give birth that evening: the ultimate professional, trying to keep all sides sweet.
Sadly, a cancer diagnosis brought the second career to an abrupt end. Treatment is both time-consuming and energy-sapping, and in this instance, ultimately fruitless.
Last words from incoming BHA chair, Simon Cox, for whom he rode on numerous occasions, “Unfailingly kind, a gentleman”. Let us hope more of us can achieve such an epithet.
Tom leaves wife Hayley, and two sons, 6 and 4.
