Back to the day job for hero Beggy
Career saved by O’Brien
ONE DAY on from partnering 40-1 outsider Wings Of Eagles to victory in the Investec Derby, it was back to the day job for Pádraig Beggy, riding world-class thoroughbreds on the Ballydoyle training gallops of trainer Aidan O’Brien.
After riding the winner of the world’s most prestigious Flat race in his first outing at Epsom, 31-year-old Beggy spent yesterday morning back in his usual routine, as a work rider and member of O’Brien’s backroom team.
Beggy is now on the same Derby roll of honour as Frankie Dettori, Lester Piggott and Kieren Fallon, the jockey whose victory in the 2001 2,000 Guineas on Golan inspired the a young schoolboy with no family background in racing to become a jockey.
Yesterday, Beggy provided his boss with a sixth Derby winner, and the jockey’s own share of the £1.625million that was up for grabs on Saturday was £40,000.
That is no inconsiderable sum for a rider who has had only seven rides this season, and who had ridden just three winners since the start of 2015.
After the race, the words poured out of the effervescent jockey almost as fast as Wings Of Eagles flew past his tiring rivals in the final yards. ‘I’ll go down in history,’ Beggy said. ‘I’ll be remembered for something, at least.’
Yet it might never have happened. Rare riding chances, a modest run of success and a 15-month ban from the saddle after he tested positive for cocaine and falsified evidence during the subsequent investigation in Australia left Beggy close to giving up, but pure determination made him stick with the sport.
It was then that he turned to friends who worked for O’Brien and asked about getting a job as a work rider with the trainer.
It was another twist of fate which saw Beggy get a race ride at Epsom at all. Had O’Brien not entered six contenders in the Derby, Beggy — well down the pecking order when rides are dished out — would have been watching the race unfold on TV.
As it was, he arrived on Saturday morning with the Ballydoyle team.
‘All us jockeys flew over with Aidan and we’d been talking about the race. Seamie Heffernan had ridden most of the horses in their last bits of work and there wasn’t much between all of them.’
Heffernan had ridden Wings Of Eagles in his previous race, a second place in the Chester Vase. ‘Fair play to Seamie, he rode him at Chester and told me what sort of ride he was.’
The strong stamina show from Wings Of Eagles suggests the mile and three-quarter St Leger at Doncaster in September, the final classic of the season, might suit him.
But O’Brien, who also trained Derby runner-up Cliffs of Moher, said: ‘We’d have an option of going to the Irish Derby with Wings of Eagles and an option of the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown for Cliffs of Moher.’