Welsh Grand National-winning jockey O’Brien dies aged 39

Tom O’Brien, the Irish jockey who won the Welsh Grand National twice, has died aged 39 after being diagnosed with cancer. He rode more than 1,000 winners in Britain and Ireland, and was a long-standing member of trainer Philip Hobbs’s Minehead operation.

O’Brien joined the yard as a teenager, before he had ridden in a race, and retired in 2023. His major wins included two at the Cheltenham Festival, the Liverpool Hurdle in 2021 and the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase in 2022, both aboard Thyme Hill; Hobbs remembered him as talented, reliable and a good friend.