When Bobby Met Christy

Bobby Beasley was a champion jockey. But when he was 24, Bobby succumbed to alcoholism. He abandoned his glittering career but turned a corner after his friend Nicky Rackard urged him to attend AA. Five years later, aged 38, Beasley rode Captain Christy to an amazing victory at the Cheltenham Gold Cup, one of the finest rides in racing history

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Bobby Beasley was a champion jockey, a trait that ran in this famous racing family. By age 26, he had won a Cheltenham Gold Cup (1959), a Champion Hurdle (1960) and a Grand National (1961). He was destined for racing greatness. But when he was 24, Bobby took his first drink and soon succumbed to alcoholism. He abandoned his glittering career but turned a corner after his friend Nicky Rackard urged him to attend Alcoholics Anonymous. Five years later, aged 38, Beasley rode Captain Christy to an amazing victory at the Cheltenham Gold Cup. The horse was a headstrong brute, transformed by Pat Taaffe into one of the most exciting talents in jump racing. Still a novice in the 1974 Gold Cup, Captain Christy made a bad mistake at the last fence but Beasley, a dynamic and natural rider, kept his nerve to drive his horse past the previous year's winner, The Dikler. That ride by Beasley is ranked as one of the finest in racing history. Years later Beasley observed: 'Christy gave me back my self-respect. He made a huge difference to my life and was a hell of a horse.' After retiring in 1975, Beasley ran a pub for eight years and then worked in a vineyard in Kent.
In the history of unlikely comebacks, that of Irish jockey Bobby Beasley is the most heartwarming - and unlikely - of them all.