05/08/2026
James Griffin has paid tribute to his father Patrick who died aged 84 on Sunday, describing him as a "great horseman" and nominating Feltrim Hill Lad's win in the 1988 Thyestes Chase and Roi Mage's Listed success in France last year at 13 years old as the two highlights of his storied training career.
Griffin started training in 1979 in north county Dublin and made an immediate impact with the likes of Conn Hull, who cost just 69 pence, and Wingate prior to his landmark success with Feltrim Hill Lad at Gowran Park.
After giving up his licence in 1994, Griffin returned to the training ranks in 2005 with his son James as his assistant and the family-run operation enjoyed winners in Britain, France and Ireland, with fan-favourite Roi Mage the star horse in recent years.
The evergreen performer finished ninth in the Grand National in 2024 and landed back-to-back Listed cross country chases at Craon in September last year, at 13 years of age, and he is on schedule to go back for an attempt at three in a row next month.
Explaining his father's route into training, Griffin said: "Dad's father owned a horse called Umm and he won the Irish National in 1955 and gave Georgie Wells his first winner as a trainer, while he also won the Galway Plate the same year.
"When Dad finished agricultural college, he was amateur jockey to Georgie Wells in Clonee, county Meath. He then became stud and farm manager at Killossery and Balrath Studs for Dick Mclllhagga, the owner of Kings Sprite who won the 1971 Irish National, in Kilsallaghan and made the natural step towards training.
"His first winner was horse called Bar You Forget. He never really had a string of more than 20 and some of the best were Wingate, who won eight races, including at the Galway festival, Conn Hull, who won a Brown Lad Hurdle, a mare called Cathom who was the only filly to have ever won at the three Kerry tracks over fences in a season. Conn Hull cost 69p. He was free and Dad said he couldn't take him for free so gave whatever he had in his pocket!
"Back in the 80s, there was a massive ladies race in Tralee which Southern Quay won under Sarah Collen despite nearly dying after losing the whole of his tail. She used to ride Feltrim Hill Lad, who was his best horse. He won plenty of races, including the Thyestes, the Conyngham Cup and two PZ Mower EBF Chases [now the Kinloch Brae]."
Despite a consistently small string, Griffin always managed to unearth a flagship horse and Roi Mage's remarkable success in France gave him particular satisfaction.
"His proudest achievement was probably Feltrim Hill Lad winning the Thyestes but he got huge pleasure out of Roi Mage winning at Craon last year as a 13-year-old. That was definitely on a par with the Thyestes win.
"He's one of the last old-school trainers in terms of the old remedies, patience, trusting your eye and bringing it back to nature as much as possible. He always said 'if you give a horse time, you'll get the best out of them'. Before we got the sand gallop we have now, he had a plough gallop and it was that and the beach and the fields that he used. He made the best of what he had and hunting was a big thing for him.
"He was a great horseman and a farmer at heart who loved nature."
https://rip.ie/death-notice/paddy-griffin-dublin-oldtown-638048
