Andrew McNamara is a retired Irish National Hunt jockey. McNamara had his first winning ride on La Captive in a bumper at Wexford in July 2002. He turned professional at the beginning of the 2004-05 season. [1]
In 2006 he won the Queen Mother Champion Chase on Newmill. He also won the 2010 Irish Grand National on Bluesea Cracker. On 14 August 2015 he won on his last ride, which was on The Right Honourable at Tramore. [2]
McNamara retired on a winner when he partnered the 'Shark' Hanlon-trained Most Honourable at Tramore on 14 August 2015 and immediately turned his attentions to training. He trained his first winner at Punchestown on 14 May 2016 when Double Speak won the opening maiden hurdle in the hands of Robbie Power
In 2013 he appeared on documentary The Irish Road To Cheltenham which was shown on RTÉ One television in Ireland. [3]
Rupert Walsh is an Irish former jockey. He is the second child, and eldest son, of former champion amateur jockey Ted Walsh and his wife Helen. Walsh is the third most prolific winner in British and Irish jump racing history behind only Sir Anthony McCoy and Richard Johnson.
Kicking King was a National Hunt racehorse trained in Straffan, County Kildare, Ireland, by Tom Taaffe. He is best known for completing the King George VI Chase-Cheltenham Gold Cup double in the 2004/05 National Hunt season. He was ridden in all his races over jumps by Barry Geraghty.
Ted Walsh is an Irish amateur jockey turned racehorse trainer who was born and raised in Co. Cork but based in Kill, County Kildare, Ireland. Ted is also father to amateur Irish National Hunt jockey, Katie Walsh and professional national hunt jockey Ruby Walsh.
Charlie Swan is a former top National Hunt jockey in Ireland in the 1990s. He is associated with the great Istabraq, on whom he won three Champion Hurdles. He was twice top jockey at the Cheltenham Festival and was champion National Hunt jockey in Ireland for nine consecutive years. After retiring as a jockey he spent several years a trainer, based in Modreeny near Cloughjordan, County Tipperary.
Robbie "Puppy" Power is a retired National Hunt jockey. The son of Irish show-jumper Con Power, Robbie Power rode the 33-1 outsider Silver Birch to victory in the 2007 John Smith's Grand National at Aintree Racecourse on Saturday 14 April 2007. It was his second Grand National ride after his Grand National debut in 2005. In 2011 he had his first Cheltenham Festival winner in the RSA Chase. In 2017 he won the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Punchestown Gold Cup on Sizing John. He also won the Irish Grand National on Our Duke.
Paul Carberry is a retired Irish National Hunt jockey.
Timothy James Murphy, known as Timmy Murphy, is a retired Irish jockey who competed mostly in National Hunt racing. A multiple Grade 1-winning rider, he is best known for his victory on Comply or Die in the 2008 Grand National. He overcame problems with alcohol, which had led to a prison sentence after a drunken incident on a plane in 2002, to resume a successful career and win the 2005 jump jockey of the year Lester Award. He won the Irish Grand National on Davids Lad in 2001, and the Scottish Grand National on Merigo in 2010 and 2012. He had eight winners at the Cheltenham Festival, the first in 1997 and the last in 2009. He recorded his 1000th win in Britain in 2010. Following an injury in a fall in 2010 he was unable to regain his licence to ride over jumps and switched codes, riding on the flat from 2015 until 2018, when he retired from race riding.
Davy Condon is an Irish National hunt racing jockey in Great Britain and Ireland. Condon’s father, Michael Condon, was an amateur jockey. His father rode for Jimmy Murphy and Charles Byrnes, but a fall that left him in a coma cut his career short with just one win to his credit. His nephew Richard is also a jockey and had a winner at the Cheltenham festival in 2021 on Heaven Help Us. His grandfather, Gerry Townend, was also a notable amateur jockey. Condon retired in 2015 after a spinal injury.
Davy Russell is an Irish retired National Hunt jockey. He was Irish jump racing Champion Jockey three times, and won the Grand National (twice), the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris.
Paddy Brennan is an Irish jump jockey. He was champion conditional jockey in the 2004/05 season and won the 2010 Cheltenham Gold Cup on Imperial Commander. As of 2021 he is based in Gloucestershire, where he is stable jockey at Fergal O'Brien's yard.
Edward O'Grady is an champion Irish National Hunt racehorse trainer. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, O'Grady was the leading Irish trainer at Cheltenham by number of winners. He was played by Pierce Brosnan in the 1980 film Murphy's Stroke.
Andrew Lynch is a retired Irish National Hunt jockey. Lynch had his first ride in a bumper at Fairyhouse in April 2001 and his first winning ride in May 2002 on Tristernagh in a novice hurdle at Downpatrick. Lynch won 2 races in the Cheltenham Festival in 2010 and 2011. His 2 Cheltenham Festival wins in 2010 were on Sizing Europe and Berties Dream in the Arkle Challenge Trophy and Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle and respectively while his 2011 wins were on Sizing Europe and Sizing Australia in the Queen Mother Champion Chase and Cross Country Chase respectively. In May 2012 Lynch broke his leg after a fall at Cork.
Bryan Cooper is a retired Irish National Hunt jockey and is the son of trainer Tom Cooper and his mother is Geraldine Cooper née O'Brien. Cooper was born in Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland and in his short career scored notable wins at the National Hunt Cheltenham Festival.
Newmill is a retired, Irish Thoroughbred racehorse who competed in National Hunt racing. He reached his peak as an eight-year-old in the spring of 2006 when he won two of the season's most important two mile steeplechases: the Queen Mother Champion Chase in England and the Kerrygold Champion Chase in Ireland. In his early career he showed promise as a novice hurdler winning the Royal Bond Novice Hurdle, Barry & Sandra Kelly Novice Hurdle and Johnstown Novice Hurdle. When switched to chasing he won the Paddy Fitpatrick Memorial Novice Chase and Kinloch Brae Chase before recording his most important victories. His later career was less successful although he did win the Red Mills Trial Hurdle in the autumn of 2006 and the Kinloch Brae Chase for a second time as a twelve-year-old in 2010.
Big Zeb is a retired, Irish Thoroughbred racehorse who competed in National Hunt racing and was best known for his performances in steeplechases over the minimum distance of two miles. He was slow to mature and made little impact in bumpers and hurdle races before being switched to chasing and winning the Swordlestown Cup Novice Chase in 2008. In the following season he won the Paddy Power Dial-A-Bet Chase but fell twice in five races. He reached his peak in the 2009/2010 season when he won the Fortria Chase and the Tied Cottage Chase before defeating a strong field to win the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival. He won the Fortria Chase and the Paddy Power Dial-A-Bet Chase again in the next season and rebounded from a defeat in the Queen Mother Champion Chase to win the Punchestown Champion Chase. He won both the Fortria Chase and the Paddy Power Dial-A-Bet Chase for a third time in the autumn of 2011 but developed injury problems and failed to win in his remaining five races. He was retired in January 2013, having won thirteen of his thirty-three races.
Sizing John is a British-bred, Irish trained thoroughbred racehorse who competes in National Hunt racing. He is trained by Jessica Harrington and owned by Ann and Alan Potts, and is best known for winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2017. He has been ridden in most of his races by Jonathon Burke, but has more recently been ridden Robbie Power, including all four of his Grade 1 wins over fences. He also won a Grade 1 over Hurdles, the Future Champions Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown in 2014, and spent much of his early chasing career finishing second or third in races won by Douvan, widely regarded as one of the best chasers of recent times.
Paul Townend is an Irish jockey who competes in National Hunt racing. Townend comes from Lisgoold in County Corkand rides primarily for the stable of Irish trainer Willie Mullins. Townend has worked for Mullins since beginning his career as an apprentice flat racing jockey. He is a six-time Irish jump racing Champion Jockey. He was champion in the 2010–11, 2018–19, 2019–20, 2020–21, 2021–22, and 2022–23 seasons.
Al Boum Photo is a French-bred, Irish-trained racehorse who won the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2019 and 2020.
Rachael Blackmore MBE is an Irish jockey who competes in National Hunt racing. In 2021, she became the first female jockey to win the Grand National in the 182-year history of the race. She also became the first woman to be leading jockey at the Cheltenham Festival with six victories, including the Champion Hurdle, in 2021. The following year she became the first female jockey to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Henry de Bromhead is an Irish horse trainer who specialises in training horses for National Hunt racing. He has trained a number of Grade 1 winners including Sizing John and Honeysuckle, and is based at stables in Knockeen, County Waterford