NINA CARBERRY was not among the official entries for the best-dressed lady competition at Fairyhouse. Even so, she ended up wearing what all agreed was the most eye-catching outfit of the day.
A blue-and-primrose silk number, speckled with mud, it caused raucous cheers on its appearance in the winners’ enclosure, where the actual fashion competition had earlier drew only polite applause.
But as always in these matters, it was the accessories that made it work.
Lovely as it was, what set Nina’s ensemble apart was a bay gelding called Organisedconfusion that had just accompanied her to victory in the Irish Grand National at a price of 12/1. Produced by the Arthur Moore label, the horse complemented the jockey beautifully as together they took the €141,000 first prize by a comfortable five lengths.
The 26-year-old Carberry thereby became only the second woman to win the race. But in doing so, she followed her brothers Paul and Philip and her father Tommy, who had all won it before her.
The most famous extended family in Irish racing also includes the winning trainer, the aforementioned Moore, who happens to be Nina’s uncle and whose father – Nina’s grandad – also triumphed here. Oh, and among the many hugs the jockey was given after the race was one from her partner, a certain Ted Walsh jnr.
Given the proven success of the breeding line, bookies must already be dreading the prospect of a generation of Walsh-Carberrys. In the meantime, they could at least console themselves with a quieter than usual afternoon from their regular scourge, Ted jnr’s brother. Ruby Walsh didn’t manage a winner yesterday, although he could have been excused if his mind was elsewhere. His second child, a daughter named Elsa, was born on Sunday.
The honour will be lost on that new arrival, but she shares a birthday with Enda Kenny, whose 60th celebrations prevented him from presenting the big-race prize. By tradition, this normally falls to the taoiseach of the day, as it did famously to a Fine Gael predecessor, John Bruton, when he had to give the cup to one Charles Haughey in 1996. Bruton was in Fairyhouse again yesterday, as it happened. But the presentation job went to Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney.
Not least among Nina Carberry’s feats was upstaging Michael O’Leary, who before her appearance in the winner’s enclosure had been responsible for the day’s most fetching number. This was the €100,000 written on a giant cheque that he had agreed in advance to offer for the winner of the Irish Racing Post Champion point-to-point race.
In the event, the horse’s owner – Scotsman Ronnie Bartlett – didn’t need the Ryanair man’s money.
He turned the “deal or no deal” down, joking that the cheque would need “another zero”. O’Leary then offered him a further €50 in cash, which Bartlett promptly pocketed before walking off. “Typical Scotsman – tight as a blue-arsed fly,” quipped O’Leary, who added that Bartlett was a regular Ryanair customer and that he would get him back later with “excess baggage charges”.
Perhaps reflecting the state of the nation’s finances, the entrants in this year’s “Most Stylish Lady” contest had been encouraged to incorporate a hint of red. In fact, this may have had more to do with the corporate colour of the Grand National sponsors, Ladbrokes.
In any case, the winner – Emer Lynch from Batterstown, Co Meath – adopted the theme in both senses.
Her hints of red included a belt that she had made herself from curtain lining at a cost of €3. The rest of the outfit looked a bit more expensive, admittedly. But whatever it cost, the investment paid off to the tune of €8,000 worth of pampering from Carton House Hotel and Spa, a €1,000 bet and a pair of Christian Louboutin shoes. The winner was chosen by judges including Rosanna Davison, who even before yesterday had appeared in more newspaper sentences featuring the words “lady in red” than most people have had hot dinners. She was, of course, dressed accordingly.