Grand National Interview: Brian O'Connortalks to Paul, Philip and Nina Carberry, members of a family whose instinctive talent to get horses running and jumping, and enjoying it, suggests it must be stamped on their DNA.

On Monday, Nina, Paul and Philip Carberry dutifully lined up for pictures in the parade ring before the Irish National at Fairyhouse: two brothers and their sister about to ride in Ireland's most valuable jump race. Today Paul and Philip will line up again for those keen to record even more familial history before the most famous Grand National of all: if it's Saturday, it must be Aintree. When it comes to being a Carberry these days, it's hard to go solo, rather like not getting Noel Gallagher without Liam.

Such interest is hardly a surprise. There is something about a family story in sport that has widespread appeal anyway. Think Bobby and Jackie Charlton, Michael and Ralf Schumacher, Steve and Mark Waugh, Seán Óg and Setanta.

Racing provides more than its share of such yarns for the simple reason throwing ponies out to the youngsters is hardly as egalitarian an option as flinging a football out into the garden and telling them to be quiet.

Even allowing for that, though, the Carberry clan are something very special indeed, a tightly-knit family that have managed to assimilate themselves almost into the very marrow of the sport in Ireland.

The Hollywood board game, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, is based on the theory every actor who has ever appeared in a film in any country and in any language since film began, can be linked to Bacon in six or less stages. In the same way, there can't be a race or a story in Irish racing that can't get to a Carberry in less than three.

As a jockey, Tommy Carberry became a Group One winner on the flat and a true legend of the jumps game. His wife, Pamela, had a training great in Dan Moore for a father, and her brother, Arthur, continues to be in the first rank of trainers. Together, though, they have managed to create something of a dynasty. Of their five children, four devote their working lives to racing. As well as their three jockeys, the Carberry's oldest boy, Thomas, also works with horses, leaving only Mark to make his living outside the sport as a carpenter. That must sometimes feel like being the third Gallagher listening to Oasis tune up.

Between them all, they have already provided enough material to fill any dynastic history.

Tommy Carberry himself managed to become the leading National Hunt rider of his generation while also pursuing the sort of social life that still has contemporaries chortling with nostalgia for the good old days of the 1970s. Three Cheltenham Gold Cup victories, with another officially wiped when Tied Cottage failed a dope test, were mixed up with the 1975 National on L'Escargot and so many other big race victories that when he retired, no one feared being corrected when they said his like would never be seen again.

They were right too. It's just that no one could have predicted his second son. If even half the stuff that by popular repute Paul has got up to over the years is correct, then it's enough to make his Dad look like a Cistercian monk. His ability to swim rivers in the early hours of the morning, ride horses into pubs after days out hunting and, on one memorable occasion, explain his presence on the injury list to having been stabbed by a stag, has kept the gossips busy for years.

That huge appetite for fun turned much more serious in October of 2005 when he set fire to a paper on a plane and ended up getting a two-month jail sentence. On appeal that was changed to a stint of community service but despite that, there are very few who don't believe Carberry is always likely to be more of a threat to himself than anyone else.

"Paul has actually calmed down a lot. He has mellowed," insists his younger brother, Philip, who is 26. "And he is riding better than ever."

There is no question the same can be said for him too. After bursting on the riding scene with a 1999 Kerry National victory on Lantrun, the younger Carberry had to settle for a lengthy stay in his brother's charismatic shadow until an Irish National victory of his own last Easter (2006) on Point Barrow turned his career completely around. Then a link with the French-trainer Francois Cottin paid off in spades just a month afterwards when Princesse d'Anjou won the French Gold Cup, the Grande-Steeple Chase de Paris, and last month at Cheltenham, a shock success on Sublimity resulted in a first Champion Hurdle success for any Carberry.

Philip might appear a calmer, more thoughtful person than his brother but there is no doubting his desire to enjoy the best moments of his career as much as possible. "I don't think you can get as much fun or enjoyment from anything as you can from riding race horses," he says. "I try not to get too worked up about things. I just set out to do the best I can without wasting emotional energy about it. You have to remember, we are doing this job for someone else. It's the trainers and owners that let us ride."

That capacity to let natural ability do its thing on the back of a horse is also immediately obvious in 22-year-old Nina. Riding half a tonne of unpredictable animal is never easy but like her older brothers, she can sometimes make it look so. Formulating an explanation as to why so many of the family can do this is much less simple. "We were never stopped from doing what we wanted as kids, but we were all interested in horses. It was just allowed to let happen," she says.

Philip agrees. "Dad let us do what we wanted but if we were with the horses he would want things done right. The easy option is to let horses do what they want. After a while it becomes second nature to do the right things. Everybody had the choice. But when it comes to working at school or working with the horses, there isn't much of a choice, is there!"

For Paul there was no choice at all. At 16 he was already riding over the Aintree fences. Possessed of a personality that makes throwing a horse at an obstacle feel like a compulsion rather than a choice, it is no shock to find out that it's the biggest fences of all that intrigue him the most.

"I like Cheltenham, but it's not Aintree. The buzz you get from racing there, there's nothing like it. The one thing I really want is another win in the National," he believes.

There is no question that in the Bacon theory of looking at things, the link between the family and the Grand National hardly justifies a single step.

Dan Moore after all trained L'Escargot to win in 1975 but it was Bobbjo's remarkable success in 1999 that cemented their place in racing history.

Tommy trained the horse that Paul guided which in turn was led up by Philip. Now the latter is about to get his first taste of riding the National on board Point Barrow who is heavily fancied to provide Ireland with a sixth National in the last eight years. Paul will be on Dun Doire but Nina misses out due to her intended mount, A New Story, not making the ballot cut. Give her the choice, however, and she would look to Philip's mount rather than Paul's.

"Point Barrow is going the right way and he is following the trend of having won the Irish National the year before," she says before expressing no surprise at her brother's recent purple patch of big-race success. "Philip rode out his claim in one year but then he broke his leg and he found it very hard to get back. He always had it in him and confidence wise he is on a high."

The man of the moment wouldn't disagree about Point Barrow's chance and although he hasn't ridden in the National itself before, he isn't exactly short of advice on how to approach it.

"Paul will be able to tell me stuff and Dad is always good on the tactical side of things," he says. "But it can only be general advice. There's no system to riding any race. All I can do is get my horse into a nice position, get him to enjoy it and keep it simple. There's no point getting worked up about it."

The words come from Philip but they may as well have emerged from any of the Carberrys. That instinctive talent to get horses running and jumping, and enjoying it, must be just stamped on their DNA. And there will be no greater stage for them to show it off than today. As per usual around Aintree, don't expect any of them to make anything other than full use of the opportunity.

Philip Carberry: He has enjoyed a remarkable last 12 months winning the 2006 Irish Grand National on Point Barrow and culminating in a Champion Hurdle victory on Sublimity at Cheltenham. This will be his first Aintree Grand National but no other jockey will be more confident than the 26-year-old. As if riding racehorses isn't exciting enough, he is also studying to become a qualified helicopter pilot.

Nina Carberry: Ireland's champion amateur and widely regarded as the best female jockey the country has ever seen. Hugely stylish and strong in a race, her Grand National debut last year finished in a ninth placing on Forrest Gunner. She says she has no intention of turning professional even though she would more than hold her own in the paid ranks.

Paul Carberry: Two-time champion jockey regarded by many as one of the greatest natural talents in racing. A Grand National winner on Bobbyjo in 1999, he is stable jockey to the champion trainer Noel Meade. At 33 he is still at the forefront of the jockeys table but has had an injury-hit season. He will take any opportunity to go hunting and reportedly is not the man to follow if you're less than fully committed!