NINA CARBERRY

Age: 28

From: Co Meath

Where to start when describing the brilliance of and her place in racing history?

It is a hint that her Christian name is sufficient when referring to her, as is the case with her brother- in-law, Ruby. She has long ceased to be described as Tommy’s daughter or Paul’s sister.

Neither is she referred to as a top female , even though she is the best of her gender there has ever been. Nina transcends gender and is one of the top jockeys around. Full stop.

As for her place in the annals, it seems that Carberry has been rewriting the history books ever since riding her first winner on the Noel Meade-trained Sabrinsky in the Curragh’s Ladies Derby in 2001.

It says it all that when she rode Organisedconfusion (trained by her uncle, Arthur Moore) to victory in the Irish in 2011, the emphasis was placed on her family’s incredible record in the race, rather than the fact that she became only the second woman ever to ride the winner, following Ann Ferris’ pioneering feat aboard Bentom Boy in 1984.

It is worth noting that her grandfather, Dan Moore won the National with Tied Cottage in 1979. By that stage, Arthur had ridden King’s Sprite to victory eight years earlier, while Dan’s son-in-law, Tommy had ridden Brown Lad to glory in 1975 and 1976. Tommy added a training success, with Paul in the plate, when Bobbyjo prevailed in 1998 and eight years later, it was the turn of another of Nina’s brothers, Philip to steer Point Borrow to the winner’s enclosure.

In a career of highlights, winning the Grand National topped the lot for a woman who was reared amongst horses just up the road from Fairyhouse.

She became the first female rider to defeat the professionals at the for 18 years when booting Paul Nolan’s Dabiroun home in the Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap hurdle in 2005. She has repeated the trick three more times since. When she became champion amateur in Ireland in 2006, she was the first woman since Frances Crowley to do so ten years earlier, and retained the title the following season.

A youth spent revelling in the adrenaline-filled pursuit of clearing ditches, gates and drains while out hunting has honed her skills for the cross-country chases, and her partnership with Enda Bolger in this particular discipline is extremely productive.

The duo have had three Cheltenham festival victories together courtesy of Heads Onthe Ground (2007) and the brilliant Garde Champetre (2008, 2009), and in Arabella Boy, they have a live chance again this year.

Katie Walsh is a keen rival of Carberry’s on the track but the two of them are great friends off it, with Katie acting as her bridesmaid when Nina married jnr last year. Away from the track and the stable, she is a fan of most sport and used to play basketball. She still tries to get out for a round of golf when time allows. But that isn’t too often, when you’re in as much demand as Nina Carberry is.