Barry Geraghty

For the Australian tennis player, see Barry Geraghty (tennis).

Barry Geraghty
Barry Geraghty & Sprinter Sacre at Punchestown in 2013
OccupationJockey
Born (1979-09-16) 16 September 1979 (age 45)
Pelletstown, County Meath, Ireland
Career wins1920 [1]
Honours
Irish jump racing Champion Jockey 1999/00, 2003/04
Significant horses
Moscow Flyer, Kicking King, Bobs Worth, Sprinter Sacre

Barry Geraghty (born 16 September 1979) is a retired Irish jockey. He is the second most successful jockey of all time at the Cheltenham Festival.[2]

Geraghty rode his first winner in January 1997 and three years later he became the Irish Champion jump jockey for the first time. His first win in England was the 1998 Midlands Grand National at Uttoxeter on Miss Orchestra for trainer Jessica Harrington.[3] He rode his first Cheltenham winner on the Jessica Harrington-trained Moscow Flyer in the 2002 Arkle Chase.

He won the Grand National in 2003 on Monty's Pass.[4] Also that year he won five races at the Cheltenham Festival, including the Queen Mother Champion Chase on Moscow Flyer and was voted Irish sports personality of the year.

In the 2003–04 season he became Champion Irish jump jockey for the second time and won the Stayers Hurdle at Cheltenham on the Jonjo O'Neill-trained Iris's Gift.

Geraghty and Moscow Flyer won their second Champion Chases at the 2005 Cheltenham Festival, and Barry also won the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Kicking King for trainer Tom Taaffe at that meeting. Following the retirement of Mick Fitzgerald he became first jockey to the Nicky Henderson stable in 2008.

In 2009 he won the Champion Hurdle on Punjabi,[5] the Arkle Challenge Trophy on Forpadydeplasterer and Triumph Hurdle on Zaynar. In winning the Champion Hurdle he became the first jockey to have won the big four races at cheltenham (Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase, Stayers Hurdle, Gold Cup) and The English Grand National. On 2 November 2009 he rode his 1000th winner under National Hunt Rules in UK and Ireland when the Nicky Henderson trained Duc De Regniere won at Kempton.[6] He won his fifth Champion Chase at the 2013 Cheltenham Festival on Sprinter Sacre. He has had at least one winner at each Cheltenham festival since his first victory in 2002 except for the 2017 Cheltenham festival. At the 2020 Cheltenham Festival he had five wins for owner JP McManus. This included a record equalling four wins in the Champion Hurdle.

On 28 August 2012 he recorded his 1,000th Irish winner after a treble at Cork Racecourse.[7] On 26 January 2019 he rode his 1,875th winner in Britain and Ireland, moving him up to fourth on the all-time winners list.[8]

In July 2020, Geraghty announced his retirement.[9] At retirement, he was the fourth most successful British and Irish jump jockey with 1920 winners.[10]

  1. ^ Racing Post[dead link]
  2. ^ "SIRE DU BERLAIS SUCCESS OWED IT ALL TO GERAGHTY AFTER TROUBLED PASSAGE". The Jockey Club (Press release). 14 March 2019. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
  3. ^ THE GRAND NATIONAL THE IRISH AT AINTREE. The O'Brien Press Ltd. p. 144. ISBN 978-1-84717-074-3.
  4. ^ [1] 2003 Grand National result
  5. ^ "Cheltenham Festival: Punjabi So Brave For Henderson" Archived 15 April 2011 at the Wayback Machine dailyrecord.co.uk, 11 March 2009, accessed 11 March 2009.
  6. ^ Peacock, Tom. "LANDMARK SUCCESS FOR GERAGHTY". Press Association. Archived from the original on 5 June 2011. Retrieved 9 September 2009.
  7. ^ Robson, Nick (28 August 2012). "Geraghty:Here's to the next 1,000". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
  8. ^ Burn, James (26 January 2019). "Barry Geraghty becomes fourth most successful rider after Cheltenham victory". Racing Post.
  9. ^ "Barry Geraghty: Jockey announces retirement aged 40". BBC Sport. 12 July 2020. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
  10. ^ Racing Post[dead link]