{"id":366963,"date":"2025-08-23T10:10:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T10:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/366963\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T10:10:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T10:10:12","slug":"ann-taaffe-widow-of-champion-jockey-leaves-estate-valued-at-more-than-e7m-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/366963\/","title":{"rendered":"Ann Taaffe, widow of champion jockey, leaves estate valued at more than \u20ac7m \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Ann Taaffe, of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/tom-taaffe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/tom-taaffe\/\">Taaffe family<\/a> that was well known in horse-racing circles, left an estate valued at more than \u20ac7 million when she died last year, according to papers released by the Probate Office this week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A grant of probate, dated August 21st, says Ms Taaffe, of Rathcoole, Co <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/dublin\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/dublin\/\">Dublin<\/a>, left a gross estate worth \u20ac7.188 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Ms Taaffe, who died on December 31st 2024, was predeceased in 2019 by her husband Toss Taaffe, who was twice Ireland\u2019s champion jockey. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Ann Taaffe died on December 31st, 2024\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/EEDCKKRME5FVJAYTGRY7DQU7DQ.jpg\"   width=\"800\" height=\"1002\"\/>Ann Taaffe died on December 31st, 2024 <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Ms Taaffe\u2019s father-in-law Tom Taaffe trained Mr What, the winner of the 1958 Grand National at Aintree. Her brother in-law, Pat Taaffe, was also a famous jockey and is best remembered for riding Arkle. His son, Tom Taaffe, trained the 2005 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Kicking King. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"The Taaffe family is synonymous with Arkle, who was ridden by Pat Taaffe, Ann Taaffe's late brother-in-law. Photograph: Dennis Oulds\/Central Press\/Getty Images\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/HHUBF3PT6ZD5LCY55UXJ2LUG24.jpg\"   width=\"800\" height=\"617\"\/>The Taaffe family is synonymous with Arkle, who was ridden by Pat Taaffe, Ann Taaffe&#8217;s late brother-in-law. Photograph: Dennis Oulds\/Central Press\/Getty Images <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Meanwhile, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/property\/residential\/2023\/02\/02\/estate-agent-john-p-mcnally-remembered-for-his-energy-and-enthusiasm\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/property\/residential\/2023\/02\/02\/estate-agent-john-p-mcnally-remembered-for-his-energy-and-enthusiasm\/\">property agent John McNally<\/a>, of McNally Handy and Partners, left an estate valued at \u20ac5.214 million when he died on January 27th, 2023. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Mr McNally, of Mount Merrion, Co Dublin, worked in the property sector for more than 50 years, including time with Morrissey\u2019s, Murphy Buckley Keogh and Gilbert Lyon White.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"John McNally left an estate valued at more than &#x20AC;5.2 million\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/KVBYAKHVQBA5XPHDQWKEVLYPP4.jpg\"   width=\"800\" height=\"599\"\/>John McNally left an estate valued at more than \u20ac5.2 million <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In other wills, Elizabeth Holfeld, of Cabinteely, Co Dublin, who died on February 15th, 2021, left an estate valued at \u20ac7.1 million, according to the Probate Office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Farmer David Rooney, of Trim, Co Meath, left an estate valued at \u20ac4.993 million when he died on January 23rd, 2025. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Ronald McCombe, formerly of Sandycove, Co Dublin, left an estate valued at \u20ac2.736 million when he died on April 9th, 2022. A supporter of animal welfare charities, Mr McCombe was a familiar figure in equestrian showing circles, including the RDS.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Alice Kelly, of Celbridge, Co Kildare, who died on September 3rd, 2024, left an estate valued at \u20ac4.274 million.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The value of estates can include property, including the family home, and other assets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ann Taaffe, of the Taaffe family that was well known in horse-racing circles, left an estate valued at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[51064,42375,42376,9348,128487,34932,1071,93,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-366963","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-animal","9":"tag-black-white","10":"tag-format-landscape","11":"tag-horse","12":"tag-horse-rac","13":"tag-male","14":"tag-racing","15":"tag-sport","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115077541473084087","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}