Firstpastthepostin GrandNationalfarce

April 1993

Disappointed Grand National jockey John White’s family home in Bannow was abuzz with phone calls and messages of support last weekend, after the fiasco that occurred at the Aintree racetrack on Saturday afternoon.

John was first past the post in the big race, on board the horse Esha Ness, only for the contest to be declared null and void because of a false start.

‘We even got a call from Spain,’ reported John White senior, who was surprisingly philosophical about his son’s agonising experience.

On the other end of the line was horse owner Mynah Russell, a sister of Crossabeg man Tom Carthy, who lives in Spain. The owner of ‘Slalom’, which John White has ridded umpteen times in the past, was disgusted about the Grand National fiasco.

‘She said nearly everyone in the tiny Spanish village where she lives had backed Esha Ness, and were now looking for their pesetas to be returned,’ said John senior, who remarked that he has been involved in racing long enough to take his son’s disappointment on the chin.

‘Racing is a great leveller,’ he said. ‘It would tame lions. You have to take the ups with the downs, and if you can’t take it, then you shouldn’t be in it.’

The unlucky Grand National hero was besieged by media representatives over the weekend and only had a brief chance to talk to his family in Bannow about the controversial race.

‘I spoke to him for a few seconds on Sunday night,’ said his dad, ‘and we had a bit of a laugh about it all.’

Family members watched the race on television on Saturday afternoon, but John insisted that he wasn’t in the least bit excited. ‘I never get excited watching races,’ he said.

There was intense excitement in Bannow, where the whole village had a few bob on the horse, and at Kilmuckridge Point-to-Point on Sunday, John’s father had his hand sympathetically shaken by dozens of acquaintances.

The disappointment experienced by the Wexford jockey was shared by punters and people involved in the racing business throughout the county. ‘Half the fellas from Wexford who go over to England for races stay in John’s house, and they were genuinely sorry for him,’ said John senior.

32-year-old John junior rode his first race on ‘Up the Creek’ in Gowran Park in 1976, at the age of 16. His first win came a few months later at Limerick Junction.

He moved to England ten years ago. He worked for nine years with famous trainer Nicky Henderson but now operates mainly on a freelance basis. In the course of his career, he has finished the course in eight out of nine Grand Nationals, coming in 1st (if you count last Saturday), 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th, 11th, 13th and 15th.

John White was one of two Wexford-born jockeys taking part in the 1993 Grand National. The other was Conor O’Dwyer of Wexford town, who finished seventh on Laura’s Beau.