BobbyJo ~ 1999 Grand National Winner
The photo above shows jockey Paul Carberry after his 1999 Grand National win on BobbyJo.
Bobbyjo became the first Irish-trained winner of the National since L'Escargot in 1975 when scoring at Aintree for father and son team Tommy and Paul Carberry.
In his Aintree win, he was lightly weighted at 10 stone, 14 pounds under the handicap, and ran the race close behind the leaders, passing them on the run-in to win by ten lengths.
BobbyJo was six months old when he was bought "over a drink" by publican Bobby Burke from a building contractor who was getting out of racing, and Burke owned him to the day he died, in 2001, when he was euthanized at age 11, after failing to recover from a broken bone in his knee.
Jockey ~ Paul Carberry
Paul Carberry had big shoes to fill when he went into professional horse racing as his father, Tommy Carberry was one of the most successful jockeys of the 1970's.
His brother Philip and sister Nina are both recognised as world class jockeys too. His uncle is Arthur Moore, one of Ireland's leading National Hunt trainers. Paul is stable jockey to Noel Meade, the current champion trainer in Ireland.
Having learnt his trade through hunting, show jumping and point-to-pointing in Ireland, Carberry is now a highly respected and stylish champion jockey.
HIs calibre is such that he has been assiocated with many great horses throughout his illustrious career. These include Sausilito Bay, Nicanor, Florida Pearl, Beef or Salmon, Solerina, Harbour Pilot, Harchibald, Hairy Molly and of course Bobbyjo.
Trainer ~ Tommy Carberry
Tommy Carberry is one of Ireland's leading trainers with an impressive jockey career of his own behind him. .
He was one of the leading jockeys in the 1970s, winning the Gold Cup three times and the Grand National once, on L'Escargot, securing a rare Gold Cup-National double in 1975 and in 1999 he became one of an elite group of men who have successfully ridden and trained Grand National winners when his son, Paul Carberry, took the title on BobbyJo.
This race had eluded all Irish trainers in the intervening years since L’Escargot, so there was poetic justice when just before the end of the Millennium.
