‘I’m mad excited and raring to go’ – Katie Walsh bids for Grand National history
IT’S the race all jockeys dream of winning.
Today, for the first time in 30 years, three of the 40 jockeys competing in the €650,000 Grand National at Aintree are female.
The bookmakers’ favourite female front-runner is Katie Walsh (33), who aims to make history and become the first woman to win the world’s most famous steeplechase.
This will be Walsh’s sixth time competing in the Grand National at the Merseyside racing Mecca.
In 2012, she finished third on Seabass, which was trained by her father, Ted.
“I’m mad excited and raring to go,” she said. “The sooner it comes, the better.”
Walsh rides on seven-yearold Baie Des Iles this time out, which is trained by her husband Ross O’Sullivan.
The 14/1 shot placed third in the Grand National Trial at Punchestown and has plenty of backing for this afternoon’s race.
The other two female jockeys lined up to ride include Tipperary native Rachael Blackmore, and Bryony Frost.
Blackmore won 35 races last season, and takes Mouse Morris-trained Alpha Des Obeaux over the 30 fences.
Frost (22), from Devon, rides Milansbar. Her father Jimmy won in 1989 on Little Polveir and she says the “big race” is in her blood.
Asked if she was pleased by the female representation on the course, Walsh replied: “The girls are lovely and it’s great to have them at the National. But for me, being male or female doesn’t come in to it.
“I don’t think of it like that. We’re all competing together at the same level – it is a unique sport in that regard. All my focus is on the race now.”
Betting interest around Walsh has increased dramatically in recent days – her odds have jumped from 66-1 to 14-1, according to Paddy Power. The bookmaker expects “a flood of further bets on her before the off”.
However, no mare has won the race since Nickel Coin in 1951. The Kildare native pays little heed to betting odds and predictions.
“No, not at all,” she says.
“You treat the National same as any other race, you eat the same, you sleep the same.
You take it at the first fence.”
The Grand National has been a sporting institution since 1839, with over 150,000 people descending on the course, and 600 million people tuning in to watch. Walsh’s brother Ruby holds the best record of current jockeys, having won the Grand National twice, in 2000 and 2005. Ruby was ruled out of Aintree after he aggravated his broken leg in a fall from Al Boum Photo at the penultimate fence in Cheltenham. Katie went on to victory but said afterwards she felt torn about the result.
“I felt sorry for Ruby and the work he’d put in,” she said. “Emotions were running high and I was torn.”
His fall has not made her fearful of riding today.
“You wouldn’t ride if you were scared,” she said. “It’s just exciting now and waiting for it to happen.”
Heavy rainfall means the course is soft and will be demanding.
“It is soft ground,” Walsh said. “It will be on the slow side but she [Baie Des Iles] will handle it anyway.”