HARRY BEASLEY — THE GRAND OLD MAN OF THE TURF
NATIONAL hunt jockeys are the toughest of the tough, but has there ever been a more durable horseman than Harry Beasley?
One of four famous racing brothers from Athy, he rode his first winner in 1876, aged 24, at Baldoyle and made his final entry to the winner’s enclosure as a jockey, aged 71, in 1923 when he steered his own mare, Pride of Arras, to victory in the Maiden Plate at Punchestown. His last public appearance in the saddle was at Baldoyle, aged 83, in 1935.
He was an Aintree Grand National winning trainer and jockey in 1891 with Come Away. “It was with the records of Punchestown and Aintree that the name of Harry Beasley is most inevitably associated,” declared a
tribute on his death in 1939. “At Punchestown he was well nigh invincible.
“Year after year he won races at the great Kildare meeting, sometimes on horses deserving of the title ‘great’, often on horses described as ‘good’ and even more often on horses that were merely ‘average’.
“He had an almost uncanny knowledge of the course — he knew it like the palm of his hand. he never failed to ‘go the shortest way around’ and it was a revelation to watch Harry ‘stealing’ lengths by using his unrivalled and expert knowledge of the tricky Punchestown circuit.”
Harry’s three sons — William, Henry and Patrick (“Rufus”) — all made their mark as jockeys as did his grandson Bobby who won the 1959 Cheltenham Gold Cup on Roddy Owen and the 1961 Aintree Grand National on 28/1 grey outsider Nicolaus Silver.
He retired in 1969 but after dealing with a drink problem, returned to the saddle and steered Captain Christy to a memorable Cheltenham Gold Cup success in 1972.