Horse Racing Ireland pays tribute after sudden death of John Fleming

John Fleming’s death took out one of Irish racing’s most connected figures, a Kilkenny accountant who moved comfortably between the sales ring, the winner’s enclosure and the business side of bloodstock. He was in his 60s, died shortly after midnight on Thursday, April 23, 2026, after being struck by a bus on Corballis Road near Dublin Airport, and was pronounced dead at the scene.

For more than 20 years, Fleming published the Irish Racing Year Book, a publication first established in 2003 and issued every year since. That alone made him a fixture in the sport’s annual record-keeping. Add more than 30 years as an accountant and adviser to people in the bloodstock industry, and he had become exactly the kind of figure Irish racing relies on but rarely stops to celebrate: the man who knew the pedigrees, the numbers and the people behind the horses.

Horse Racing Ireland chief executive Suzanne Eade said Fleming was “very talented and hugely respected” and said he had a genuine passion for racing. Those words fit the scale of the loss. Fleming was not a distant figure with a passing interest in the sport. He was a racehorse owner, a regular buyer at breeze-up sales and a man with longstanding ties to trainers Michael O’Callaghan and Joe Murphy. He was also involved with Cercene, last season’s Coronation Stakes winner at Royal Ascot.

The timing makes the loss feel even sharper. Fleming was on hand to greet Navassas Island after her Listed Irish EBF Cork Stakes win on Easter Sunday, April 20, 2026, three days before he died. That is the kind of detail that tells you where he sat in the sport: not in the background, but close enough to the horses and the people around them to be part of the moment when it mattered.

The Dublin Airport operator daa said it was deeply saddened and noted that emergency services and airport police attended immediately. An Garda Síochána is seeking witnesses and any dash-cam footage from road users in the area between 11.45pm on Wednesday, April 22 and 12.15am on Thursday, April 23, with callers asked to contact Ballymun Garda Station. In a sport that runs on memory, Fleming’s legacy now sits in the yearbook he built, the horses he backed and the trust he earned across Irish racing.