Kildare's Stan Begley is crowned Corinthian Challenge Champion

Stan Begley has been crowned Corinthian Challenge Champion. A total of 14 riders went to post in the final leg of The Corinthian Challenge Charity Race Series for Irish Injured Jockeys (IIJ) at Leopardstown Racecourse on Saturday. The exciting charity race for amateurs was won by Kerry native Fiona Dowling aboard Vera Verto, owned by the From the Clouds Partnership and trained by Gavin Cromwell.

Stan Begley was crowned overall Champion of the Corinthian Challenge for 2022, as he had the most points accumulated across the series having been placed in every race, the highlight being his win at Gowran Park last month. 

After the race celebrations were shared between the affable Corinthians. Begley, 'bred in the purple' himself, was as gentlemanly as ever and keen to see Fiona enjoy her win before being presented with the much-coveted Corinthian Challenge Champion’s trophy.

Stan Begley is the grandson of the late great Stan Cosgrove who will be forever remembered in the Irish horse racing scene. Last Saturday at Leopardstown, Stan junior was crowned the 2022 Corinthian Challenge Champion. A graduate of Agricultural Science from UCD, he also completed The Irish National Stud breeding and management course in 2017. He also recently achieved a Masters in Business Management from UCD Smurfit School of Business.

After his studies, he spent some time working at Arrowfield Stud in Australia and Coolmore America before returning home to The Irish National Stud in Kildare where he is a Breeding Management Assistant. Although having always worked on the breeding side of the industry, Begley said he was very keen to get involved in the racing side of it and the Corinthian Challenge has been a great opportunity to do so over the last few months. Throughout the entire series he has been riding out most mornings for Mark Fahey and has thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this experience of a lifetime.

Begley said, “It has been such a buzz, unbelievable and still a bit surreal really. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mark Fahey and his whole team for their continued support throughout and the owners who have afforded me the opportunity to ride their horses in each race. The series is a great initiative to raise vital money for the injured Jockeys fund and I would like to thank everyone who has supported me in particular, my main sponsors Kildare House Hotel and Sycamore Lodge Equine Hospital.”

The Corinthian Challenge is a popular annual charity race series run by Irish Injured Jockeys Fund to raise awareness and much needed funds for the national charity. Challengers are essentially volunteers who apply to participate in the three-race series, they each get the chance to experience first hand of what it is like to be a jockey from training and fitness to race preparation right through to riding on the track at The Curragh, Gowran Park and Leopardstown respectively. 

During the course of the series, challengers are also tasked with raising awareness and much needed funds for Irish Injured Jockeys. The Corinthian Challenge Charity Race Series is an extremely successful fundraising initiative for Irish Injured Jockey. To date, it has raised over €500,000, with this year’s crew within reach of their collective target of €140,000. It’s not too late to donate and support their fundraising efforts online or indeed if you wish to express your interest in riding in the 2023 Corinthian Challenge for Irish Injured Jockeys simply visit www.corinthianchallenge.com.