We mentioned previously on the countdown about the steeplechase world enduring more than its share of losses. Another hit a member of our team hard when three-time Maryland Hunt Cup winner Paddy Neilson died in early September after a bout with cancer.
Simply titled “Paddy Neilson” and posted on The Inside Rail blog, Sean’s piece didn’t waste time getting to the point of what the timber racing legend meant to his career.
“I would not have become a jockey without Paddy Neilson,” Sean wrote.
The piece later went to explain lessons learned from the man himself, how “everybody knew Paddy Neilson.”
“You knew his rides, his horses; Haffaday, Sir George, Coke Hi, Chapel Street and all the other great timber horses,” Sean wrote. “Soft hands, light touch, he was a tactician on a horse. One of the best I had ever seen, long before, I knew what he was doing. I couldn’t see a spot, but I knew he could. Sometimes wearing sunglasses, they looked like wire-rimmed Ray Ban sunglasses, he won everything there was to win when it came to timber racing. Whew, the way he folded into a horse over a jump, elbows like bookends on either side of the horse’s neck, leg tight, heels down, like Paul Brown drew him.”
The story appeared Sept. 8 and is No. 3 on the TIHR Top 10 for 2019.
No. 3: Paddy Neilson
Check out the rest of the TIHR Top 10 for 2019:
No. 10: A Tie at the Top for Mitchell, Doyle
No. 9: Jumping Around podcast Part 1 with Sheppard
No. 8. Senior Senator rolls to Hunt Cup win
No. 7: Wicklow Brave
No. 6: House Horse: Mott wins Kentucky Derby
No. 5: Catherine French, photographer and more
No. 4: Win Win Win’s winning attitude
No. 3: Paddy Neilson
