John McNamara (jockey)

JT McNamara
Occupation Jockey
Born 8 April 1975 (age 40)
Limerick, Munster, Republic of Ireland
Career wins 600+

John Thomas McNamara, more commonly known as JT McNamara, (born 8 April 1975) is a former amateur Irish Steeplechase Jockey. He sustained a serious back injury and a broken neck after a fall at the 2013 Cheltenham Festival which left him paralysed and admitted him to a wheelchair. McNamara won over 600 racecourse victories during his career.

Biography

Career

McNamara partnered with Teaforthree to secure victory in the Diamond Jubilee National Hunt Chase at the 2012 Cheltenham Festival having been the 5-1 favourite. He won the same race in 2002 on Rith Dubh, was successful in the Glenfarclas Cross Country Handicap Chase with Spot Thedifference three years later and won the 2007 Foxhunter Chase on Drombeag.[1]

Back injury and paralysis

The jockey, from Limerick, was badly hurt when Galaxy Rock, trained locally in Gloucestershire by Jonjo O'Neill, fell at the first fence in the 2013 Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup. The fall fractured McNamara's C3 and C4 vertebrae. McNamara was flown to Frenchay Hospital in Bristol[2] and was initially kept in an induced coma after recovering from neck surgery. He was the first jockey to have been paralysed on riding at a British racecourse since Wayne Burton suffered a serious head injury in a fall in Exeter in March 2008.[3]

In June 2014, McNamara returned home to Ireland in a wheelchair 15 months after his horror fall at Cheltenham.[4]

Personal life

McNamara is married to Caroline and the couple have three children. McNamara still lives in his country of birth, The Republic of Ireland[5]

References

  1. ↑ "Tea time at Cheltenham for McNamara". RTÉ Sport (RTÉ). 14 March 2012. Retrieved 30 March 2013.
  2. ↑ Keogh, Frank (14 March 2013). "JT McNamara: Cheltenham jockey in coma after Festival fall". Retrieved 30 March 2013.
  3. ↑ Armytage, Marcus (29 March 2013). "JT McNamara 'very positive' despite being paralysed by fall at Cheltenham Festival". The Telegraph. Retrieved 30 March 2013.
  4. ↑ "Paralysed jockey returns home". Irish Independent. 20 June 2014. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  5. ↑ Keogh, Frank (15 March 2013). "JT McNamara: Wife of injured Cheltenham jockey at bedside". BBC Sport (BBC). Retrieved 30 March 2013.
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