Tributes paid to Pat Coffey after trainer's death in tragic accident

The horse racing world has paid tribute to a trainer who died in a tragic accident earlier this week.

Pat Coffey, 55, was killed when he was thrown from a horse and trap on Wednesday in Tipperary.Mr Coffey operated the Boulagloss Stables, near Nenagh, Co Tipperary.

Irish jockey Davy Russell rode winners Saddlers Deal and That's A Fact at Huntingdon in 2014 in a career highlight for Mr Coffey.

Russell told the Racing Post: "I'm devastated. I'm shocked, I genuinely am over the whole thing.

"Pat was a very nice man and he was a real sportsman who loved every part of racing. “He understood the game, he bought foals, he bought three-year-olds, he raced horses. He was a great man.

The Coffey family suffered a separate tragedy in recent years when Pat's nephew Patrick McCormack died in a farming accident in 2018.

Russell added: "He was a proper Irishman. He milked cows in the morning, rode out his few horses and he'd go off to the hunt as well.

"He was what our industry is all about — the backbone of the game.”