The value of the foxhunter’s riding experience was well demonstrated on April 6 when Ward Union Staghounds hunt follower and amateur rider Nina Carberry won the 250,000 Euro ($350,000) 3 miles 5 furlong Irish Grand National on a horse named Organisedconfusion at Fairyhouse Racecourse in County Meath. She prevailed against top National Hunt jockeys, including Ruby Walsh and recently crowned sixteen-times British Champion Jockey A.P. McCoy.
Nina’s horse was trained by her uncle Arthur Moore, whose late father Dan trained for Raymond Guest, a former US Ambassador to Ireland and MFH of the old Rock Hill Hounds in Virginia.
Nina, age twenty-six, is the fourth member of her family to win the Irish Grand National. Her father Tommy won it twice on Brown Lad in 1975 and 1976, her brother Paul won it on Bobbyjo in 1998, and her other brother Philip won it on Point Barrow in 2006.
During the National Hunt season of 2010/2011, Nina has had twenty-six wins and fifty-four places for a total of $600,000 in purses. She has been placed three times in the Aintree Grand National: ninth in 2006 on Forest Gunner, seventh in 2010 on Character Building, and fifteenth in 2011 on the same horse.
Nina has hunted since she was a child with the Ward Union Staghounds in County Meath over the wide challenging ditches. Her brother Paul is honorary whipper-in, and they both consistently credit their years in the hunting field with their riding ability, and especially their balance over a fence. She hunts every week with both the Ward Union and the Meath Foxhounds.
The fact that two whippers-in—Darran Campbell of the Ward Union Staghounds and Barry Finnegan of the Meath Foxhounds—escorted Nina into the Winner’s Enclosure added to the occasion.
Posted April 28, 2011