Grand national winning jockey, Paul Carberry has revealed how he conquered every riders fear of falling.He accepted it as the inevitable consequence of race riding.

Carberry was ‘speaking about Irish Grand National Betting, which can be seen here, https://www.boylesports.com/sports/horse-racing/future-horses/fairyhouse/boylesports-irish-grand-national , and said, ‘ You can overthink it being a jockey – I had no respect for my body

‘The way that I looked at it, [falling], was I would try and put it out of my mind and, basically, have no respect for my body as it is bound to get broken up. Don’t worry about it and whatever happens, happens, and that makes it easy to ride.

‘You can often overthink it, you just need to have a free mind and just hope that at the end, you’ll overcome it and be OK

The Ratoath man was delighted to see Davy Russell come out of retirement for the Cheltenham festival earlier this month, but was adamant it wouldn’t have been his choice.

‘I wouldn’t be able to come out of retirement like Davy did – but I can see why he did it

‘My body wouldn’t be able to take it! With Davy coming out, it gives the lads there another chance but that’s neither here nor there. Sam [Ewing] was really unlucky to break his arm and Jordan [Gainford] has been injured as well, so Gordon’s lads haven’t had a good run.

‘Michael O’Leary speaks his mind! What he says is not always right but he likes to get his point across in any case.

‘It might have been right Davy coming back, but I don’t know if it was fair on the younger lads not getting the chance to prove themselves. They have to do that at some stage. Would they have done a better job at Cheltenham than Davy? Maybe not but you never know until you try.

‘Gordon has faith in the young lads, but perhaps doing what he did with Davy may have knocked their confidence a bit. I thought it was the wrong move’.

Asked what it takes to win the Irish National, Carberry deadpanned, ‘A good horse’ before elaborating, ‘It’s a pretty straightforward formula to win the Irish Grand National

‘You need a horse that stays, definitely has to be able to do that. Noel Meade had two in the race in 2002 with The Bunny Boiler and Arctic Copper and the latter was probably the better horse, but he got to the second last fence and just stopped, he didn’t stay, the other horse did and went on to win.

‘The ground will be very testing at the moment so they will need a few dry days coming up. It’s pretty simple, a horse that jumps and stays well is needed to have any chance of winning the Irish Grand National.

‘Thankfully he race has certainly made its way back into the elite level of Irish racing t definitely is, it is getting the runners now, we have had some big winners in the last couple of years so it is good to see that as well as it isn’t the main guns winning every year.

‘It is coming back up, especially with the prize money and that will always bring the horses back in.’

There is only one English-trained runner in the field – Carberry claims there’s a good reason why

‘Well the English are probably thinking that if they’re coming over here and beating us, then why would we go over there and get beaten?

‘The English horses are very good but the trainers probably can’t see them beating our horses over here in Ireland on our turf.

‘Winning on Bobbyjo was one of my biggest achievements

‘It was very important to me, it was a Bank Holiday Monday as well so the chances of me actually getting to ride Bobbyjo was very slim, as there were meetings over in England, but luckily I got to ride the horse and for my dad as well.

‘The horse travelled great, jumped super and won very nicely. It was a great feeling after that, it was probably one of my biggest wins at that point until I won the English National the next year.

‘My first ride over fences was actually in the National on a horse that my father trained a few years before.

‘There is only one way to compare the English and Irish Grand National, they are different in their own special ways but there is one thing in common – they are both very, very hard to win.

‘You think you might have a good horse under you but you’ll end up fifth in the race.

‘Everyone knows the tricky fences at Aintree but there shouldn’t be any issues with the fences at Fairyhouse to catch any riders out, Ballyhack used to be the one that might catch you out a bit as some of the horses couldn’t see the landing side of the fence, but they’ve modified that.

‘Generally there isn’t one fence that causes issues. I think three or four out as the horses are quickening up can catch a few people out though in the final straight.

‘Looking at this years race I think Dunboyne at 16/1 and Real Steel at 40/1 are the each way value.’

Paul’s Irish Grand National preview

Thedevilscoachman, if he didn’t run a week or so ago, then he would be the right favourite, but two weeks to recover from that race for this one might not be long enough with another three miles and more ahead of him.

I assume he will run but I suspect he’ll need more time to recover if he is to win.

Gaillard Du Mesnil had a good win at Cheltenham, that’ll help him. Willie Mullins has a lot thrown in and he looked one of his better winners at the Festival in a good race.

Dermot McLoughlin is a good friend of mine and he’s going well, he’s just down the road from me and it is great to see him win the race the last two years.

I think his runner Lord Lariat, winner last year, had a great prep run for this race at Leopardstown. Dermot obviously thinks he’s got a big chance of winning here and I think he does too.

 

Panda Boy has a good chance too, for sure. Martin Brassil has been very unlucky, he had two seconds at Cheltenham, it would be good to see him come back and get his head in front here.

It is a very open race, Angel’s Dawn won at Cheltenham, there is Stumptown as well, but it is going to be a cracker, it’ll be really hard to split them.

I suppose it will be a question of which horses come back right after going to Cheltenham as well, getting themselves back in order.

What you need to do to win at Fairyhouse

It is a lovely racecourse to ride at. What you need there is a good horse! There is no hiding place there. You need a good horse to win there.

When I won the Irish Grand National, I beat Ruby Walsh and he was only an amateur at the time, a couple of years later he might have beaten me. He took me on three out, I wouldn’t have dared do that, but it is a lovely track.

Paul’s tip for the race?

That’s a hard one at this stage, really difficult. I’ll go with one of Willie Mullins’, but I don’t know which one!

Dunboyne I think has a good chance as an outsider in the race. I’d also give Real Steel at 40/1 a good each-way chance as well.