Carberry and Walsh aiming to make Grand National history
Published:The wait goes on for a female jockey to win the Grand National, and Nina Carberry and Katie Walsh are the two hoping to break the mould this year, with Walsh’s mount Seabass a 14/1 chance, and Carberry’s ride Organisedconfusion a 20/1 shot.
Carberry will be competing in the Aintree showpiece for a fourth time on Saturday, and having completed the race on her three previous attempts, she will be hoping to trump her best seventh-placed finish on Character Building in the 2010 National.
She could well have each-way place claims aboard Organisedconfusion, with whom she achieved success with in last year’s Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse, and she is hopeful everything will come together to give him a chance in this steeplechase.
“He’ll have a chance. If you’re not in, you can’t win and hopefully he takes to the jumps. Hopefully then he’ll be there at the end and he’ll be good enough,” she told the Liverpool Echo.
Meanwhile, Walsh, brother of legendary jockey Ruby, will be making her first ever Grand National appearance in the hope of scooping a £1m prize by taking Seabass to glory.
She will become the 15th female jockey to take part in the race, since the all-male rule’s existence ceased in 1977, and will aim to be only the fifth woman to complete the Aintree course in the world’s greatest steeplechase.
Walsh has achieved success in prestigious races in the past, steering Poker De Sivola first over the finish line in the 2010 National Hunt Chase at Cheltenham, and will be desperate to further prove her credentials with an impressive showing here.
Her nine-year-old mount Seabass is trained by her father Ted, and the never-say-die attitude of the horse will stand Walsh in good stead to justify 14/1 odds to win the race, and thus become the first female jockey to do so.
