Patrick Taaffe (1930, Dublin - 7 July 1992, Dublin) was an Irish National Hunt jockey who famously rode Arkle to win three Cheltenham Gold Cups between 1964 and 1966. Arkle and Taaffe, the pair who dominated National Hunt racing in the mid-sixties, won the Irish Grand National, the King George VI Chase, 2 Hennessy Gold Cups, 3 Cheltenham Gold Cups and the Whitbread Cup. He died in 1992 in Dublin Hospital, aged 62, of a heart condition, having previously undergone only the third heart transplant operation in Ireland (in 1989).