Dunwoody expects top racing at Fairyhouse

Sunday Business Post - Business of Sport page - Feb 22 2009

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Three-time champion jockey Richard Dunwoody, who is the official ambassador for the Irish Grand National, expects a top weekend of racing at Easter.

Dunwoody was announced as the ambassador for the 2009 Powers Whiskey Irish Grand National at a Racing Legends event in Dublin’s Merrion Hotel last week. The event, which is celebrating its 140th anniversary, will take place over Easter weekend (April 12-14) and has a prize fund of €250,000.

‘‘The Grand National at Fairyhouse is always a great race, and the festival is always a fantastic three days of racing,” said Dunwoody. ‘‘Racegoers get to see the best jockeys and the best horses. It’s a really good social occasion as well.”

During his career, Dunwoody rode 1,699 winners, including two English Grand Nationals, the Champion Hurdle, the Cheltenham Gold Cup and an Irish Grand National victory with Desert Orchid in 1990.

‘‘Winning the Irish national on Desert Orchid was one of the most memorable days of my career,” Dunwoody told The Sunday Business Post. ‘‘I made a bad mistake at the last, but fortunately we survived it. The reception Desert Orchid got was just amazing to witness.”

Last year’s race saw 33/1 shot Hear the Echo stun Fairyhouse to win by 12 lengths. Dunwoody said the Michael O’Leary-trained eight-year-old had a chance again, if declared.

‘‘At the moment, it is too early to know who will definitely run,” he said. ‘‘Horses like Hear The Echo and last year’s Welsh grand national winner Notre Pere, if they run, will be up there but, whoever runs, it will be a top-quality race.”

Although he has his hands full as a racing pundit for the BBC, sports columnist and inspirational speaker, Dunwoody is also something of an adventurer. In 2003, he completed a 350-mile ski race to the magnetic North Pole. And in January of last year, he completed a 680-mile, 48day un-resupplied trek to the South Pole, along a route attempted unsuccessfully in 1918 by legendary explorer Ernest Shackleton.

‘‘We set out on December 1 with all our provisions and, 48 days later, we got there,” he said. ‘‘A year on, I look back on it and have to say that it is certainly my greatest-ever achievement.”

Dunwoody said he would soon be announcing details of his next challenge.

‘‘I cannot say a lot about it yet, but it involves walking quite a long way,” he said. ‘‘We are hoping to launch that in the next month.”