Quinn determined to set several records straight in National bid

For, while history is against him, Quinn believes jockey Nina Carberry – and the galloping grey Character Building – can make history and become the first Yorkshire winner of the Aintree showpiece since 1960.

“What a story, but why can’t we do it?” said Quinn who was born, ironically, just a month after Bobby Beasley rode Nicolaus Silver to victory for the great National trainer Fred Rimell.

“Character Building is a 2009 Cheltenham Festival winner so has that little bit of class. He has Aintree experience – he was seventh last year for Nina.

“And he’s had a much better preparation this season, running in five races.

“And, while he hasn’t won, he was running on nicely at the end of the Grimthorpe Chase at Doncaster when third to James Reveley’s horse Always Right.

“He’s better than he was last year – he’ll have to be if he’s going to win on Saturday – but Character Building doesn’t know about these historical precedents, does he?

“The reason a grey hasn’t won is because there have been so few runners. They are in a huge minority. As for Nina, she is absolute dynamite as a jockey and I have no qualms on that score.

“If Character Building is good enough, Nina Carberry is good enough.”

There is an air of confidence in the voice of Quinn, the Settrington dual-purpose trainer whose Bonfire Knight was an impressive winner at Doncaster’s Lincoln meeting for champion Flat rider Paul Hanagan.

A journeyman jockey who started riding out hunters at his grandfather’s farm in his native Ireland, a National victory for 11-year-old Character Building would comfortably surpass Blythe Knight’s triumph in the 2006 Lincoln.

It would also see Carberry, part of a famous Irish racing dynasty, become a household name in her own right on both sides of the Irish Sea and prove that horse racing is one of the few sports where female jockeys and amateur riders can compete alongside battle-hardened pros like AP McCoy, the 15-times champion jockey who prevailed at Aintree last year.

Her father Tommy rode the 1975 National hero L’Escargot before training the 1999 winner Bobbyjo – ridden by Carberry’s elder brother Paul who swung from the rafters of Aintree’s old winner’s enclosure after his triumph. In recent years, it has been the fairer sex which has prevailed for the family.

In her first National ride, Carberry was ninth on Forest Gunner in 2006 – her brother fell at the 22nd.

And, last year, she was seventh on Character Building while her brother’s horse King John’s Castle refused to start.

The first female to prevail at Cheltenham in a race open to professionals when Dabiroun landed the Fred Winter Hurdle in 2005, Carberry’s prowess in the saddle is a marked change from the 1970s when female riders were regarded as a novelty – and people like Ginger McCain, Red Rum’s trainer, questioned their capabilities – and sanity.

She is far more accomplished than Charlotte Brew who took on the big fences in 1977 (Barony Fort refused four out) or Jenny Hembrow who got no further than the first fence the following year.

The first female to complete the course was Geraldine Rees on Cheers in 1982 while two women have finished fifth – Rosemary Henderson, who was 51 when she rode Fiddlers Pike in 1994, and Carrie Ford, who gave Forest Gunner an inspirational ride in 2005.

However, Carberry does not regard herself as a sporting phenomenon or role model. Instead the 26-year-old – whose friend and rival Katie Walsh will be riding in the race for the first time this year – just wants to be respected by her peers, and takes her inspiration from her family’s history.

“Character Building was great and gave me an absolutely brilliant ride last year,” said Carberry who is regarded as the best female NH jockey following her many memorable successes over Cheltenham’s cross-country course on Garde Champetre.

“They were going a stride too quickly for him early on, so I just tried to get him travelling and keep in touch.

“I had a real hope of being in the first three after the Canal Turn because he really took off, but he started to feel the pinch jumping the last.

“At that point I still hoped to finish fifth, but we got caught by a couple of horses on the run-in. Despite that, he ran a great race and, if the ground had been a bit softer, the leaders might have come back to him.

“If he runs a race like last year I’ll be delighted. John Quinn said he is better prepared this year than he was last year so that’s a big plus.

“It felt like a normal race and all the jockeys were great. They’re all looking out for each other. I’ve got round twice from two attempts now, and I just want to get that bit closer.”

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