Cheltenham Festival legend who rides Flat racing superstar Paddington every day
The best Flat horse in Europe has one of the outstanding riding talents of the nineties as his daily exercise rider.
Adrian Maguire, the 1992 Cheltenham Gold Cup-winning jump jockey, now works for Aidan O’Brien. Often described as the 'best jockey never to win the jump jockeys’ title', coming closest when Richard Dunwoody beat him 197 wins to 194 at the end of a brutal battle in the 1993-94 campaign, Maguire was forced to quit the saddle aged 31 having suffered a broken neck.
Since he gave up his training business he has been working at Ballydoyle where the brilliant three-year-old Paddington has become his regular partner.
Paddington has been proclaimed the stable’s new 'Iron Horse' after he stretched his winning sequence of Group 1 victories to four with his latest success coming in the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood last week.
“I ride out Paddington every day,” said Maguire, who is now 52. “For what he has achieved so far, he’s the best I’ve ever ridden. He’s an amazing horse. He was always a good horse, but what he’s doing on the racecourse, to win with great authority, is leaving no doubt in people’s minds.
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“It’s great. I can only imagine how far he’ll go and seeing the reaction here at Ballydoyle, everyone is so delighted to have what people are calling a superstar horse at the moment in the yard. Everyone gets great joy out of watching him do what he is doing.”
Paddington sweeps to his fourth Group 1 win (Getty Images)Maguire rode over 1,000 winners in his career, including the Gold Cup with Cool Ground, a Champion Chase with Viking Flagship plus a pair of King George VI Chase wins with Barton Bank and Florida Pearl.
After he retired he was also responsible for the development of the legendary Denman before he was sold to Paul Nicholls. He said: “It’s always nice to ride a special horse. It is what we all do it for – to find that special horse.
“I have been lucky through my riding career to find special horses to ride. I had one or two when I was training also – and Paddington is a very special horse.”
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