Tom O'Brien dies aged 39 as racing pays tribute to Cheltenham-winning jockey

Tom O'Brien, the jockey whose career included two Cheltenham Festival victories and two Welsh Grand National wins, has died aged 39 after being diagnosed with cancer, BBC Sport reported. He had retired from race riding in 2023 and subsequently joined the British Horseracing Authority's stewarding team.

Watch the highlights:

The Irish rider, a nephew of trainer Aidan O'Brien, recorded more than 1,000 winners in Britain and Ireland. BBC Sport reported that he joined Philip Hobbs' Minehead yard as a teenager and remained there until retirement. Hobbs recalled that O'Brien arrived from Ireland without having ridden in a race, but quickly demonstrated his talent.

Sky Sports traced his first Grade One victory to Souffleur in the 2007 Challow Novices' Hurdle for trainer Peter Bowen. O'Brien finished his riding career with five wins at that level. His later partnership with the Hobbs-trained Thyme Hill brought victories in the Liverpool Hurdle in 2021 and the Kauto Star Novices' Chase in 2022, two of his most notable successes.

His Cheltenham Festival wins came aboard Silk Affair in the 2009 Fred Winter and Third Wind in the 2022 Pertemps Final, according to Sporting Life. The same report identified Dream Alliance and Elegant Escape as his Welsh Grand National winners. Sky Sports noted that Dream Alliance's 2009 victory became part of the story told in the film Dream Horse.

Tributes also focused on O'Brien's relationships away from competition. In Sky Sports' report, Hobbs remembered a dependable rider and said he had stayed in contact after retirement, with O'Brien visiting the yard about three weeks earlier. Hobbs expressed sympathy for his wife Hayley and their two young children. Johnson White, who now trains alongside Hobbs, also paid tribute to O'Brien's work ethic and devotion to his family.

Richard Johnson, his former colleague at the Hobbs yard, told Sporting Life that O'Brien could lift others' spirits and was easy to get along with. Johnson said his move into stewarding had allowed him to remain involved in racing without the pressures of riding. BHA chief executive Brant Dunshea, quoted by BBC Sport, said the sport would come together to support those grieving and remember O'Brien as a rider, colleague, friend and father.