Heartfelt tributes flowed today as the racing world struggled to come to terms with the news of the death of Pat Smullen.
The 43-year-old lost his battle with pancreatic cancer on Tuesday night and the tragic news has rocked the Irish sporting world.
Among the racing royalty paying tribute was Dermot Weld.
Smullen was Weld’s stable jockey for the best part of 20 years and the pair enjoyed huge success all over the world, most notably when winning the 2016 Derby at Epsom.
“Pat Smullen was just a very, very special man, with regards to the sport of horse racing and indeed to me personally. He was unique,” said Weld, speaking on Nick Luck’s Daily Podcast.
In this day and age I would have to say his loyalty and his integrity stood out. He was my stable jockey for 20 years and was just the professionals’ professional.
“I only had two retained jockeys, Michael Kinane for about 13 years and Pat for about 20. We just built together, but he was simply an excellent jockey.”
In light of the battle Smullen would eventually face, Weld said it was fitting that his sole English 2000 Guineas win came on board a horse called Refuse To Bend.
“I think that typified the man,” weld said. “Right to the end when he was fighting pancreatic cancer he had this will to win, this belief, determination and he was able to impart that to the horses he rode.
“After he won the Epsom Derby — and he so deserved to ride the winner of an Epsom Derby — the amount of public support, I can even use the word love at his achievement, was amazing. He led by example, I think that is the best way I can describe him.”
Kinane described Smullen as “a top-class professional and a top-class man”.
He added: “He was a gentleman. He came to Dermot’s, things moved on and he took over my job and did a fantastic job for a long time. Unfortunately he couldn’t win his last battle, but he tried so hard.”
AP McCoy admitted the tears flowed when he heard the news.
“He was a wonderful man. It’s very hard, it’s very hard on the family. It’s just a tragic time, it’s heartbreaking,” McCoy said.
“Paying a compliment to him as a rider, he took over from as good a rider as I have ever seen in Mick Kinane and you wouldn’t have known. That is how good Pat Smullen was. You can try to think about races he maybe should have won — there aren’t any.
“It’s just horrifically sad. I spent a long time crying last night.”
Smullen convinced McCoy to take part in the Pat Smullen Champions Race For Cancer Trials in Ireland last September, and he rose to the task when making all the running on Quizical at the Curragh. The 20-times champion jumps jockey beat other legends of the turf such as Ruby Walsh and Johnny Murtagh, on a day that helped Smullen raise over €2.5m for charity.
“It was very special,” said McCoy.
“I know he said that some of us were harder to persuade to ride than others, and it did take me a bit of time to think about it because I was a bit unfit at the time and worried about making a show of myself.
“But because it was for Pat Smullen and for such a special cause — there is no doubt it is one of the memories that will last forever in my mind.”
Cancer Trials Ireland paid its own tribute the rider, hailing him “as a friend like no other”.
The charity detailed how Smullen’s work had resulted in nine research proposals this year that will be advanced or explored, that he had also helped raise €120,000 for ovarian and prostate cancer trials last November and earlier this year gave the go-ahead to fund a Next Generation Sequencing machine for St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin — equipment that could potentially open up treatment options for patients with all types of cancer.
An open letter to the Smullen family concluded: “It is a mark of the man that he had such a wide-ranging generosity. Pat’s popularity — and humility — was and is legendary.
“It was truly remarkable, and inspiring, to see that these qualities can coexist with the drive and determination it takes to reach the very top of his demanding sport.
Our thoughts, today and always, are with Pat’s wife Frances, his children Hannah, Paddy, and Sarah, and his wider family.
“Clinical trials offer patients very real, tangible, important benefits — but they can also provide something as vital as it is intangible: Hope. That is Pat’s real gift to the people who come after him, who are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
“The outpouring of love and support his efforts have generated give hope to us all.”
Frankie Dettori hailed Smullen as a “great man and a complete gentleman”, having competed against him across the globe for more than two decades.
He said: “I’d travelled the world for 20 years with Pat and he was a great friend that fought until the end. It is always a shock when you get the news.
“I texted him about 10 days ago and he said he was not good and that he was back in hospital. It is such a shame as he leaves behind his wife and three children. He was a great man, not just with the horses, but with the way he conducted himself throughout the whole of this illness.
He was a complete gentleman in every way.
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