Decade of graft leads to Aintree glory for Maguire

Jason Maguire's win in Aintree Grand National on Saturday was the culmination of a decade of hard work on the British racing circuit for the Kilmessan jockey who has enjoyed a close relationship with the McCain family over the past few years. The Maguire name from the village in the shadow of the Hill of Tara has been synonymous with racing, through Jason's uncle, Adrian, and not many outside of racing followers would have been familiar with the younger Maguire until his relationship with Donald McCain Junior became more fruitful and he became one of the top three in the British National Hunt championship, behind AP McCoy and Richard Johnson. Jason's uncle, Adrian - just 10 years his senior, and who turns 40 this year - won the Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse on Omerta, and the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Cool Ground, and battled out a momentous jockeys' championship with Richard Dunwoody in the 1990s. However, one race win that eluded him was the Aintree event, but with Ballabriggs, Jason has added the Maguire name to the roll of honour. The Irish have dominated Aintree since Paul Carberry's win on Bobbyjo in 1999, and Jason Maguire follows Carberry, Barry Geraghty and Robert Power on the list of Meath jockeys who have captured the race since the Irish revival. He has never been as prominent in Ireland as those other three jockeys, as he has plied most of his trade and enjoyed his greatest success across the water. His earliest racing memories are of Adrian winning the Irish National in 1990, and in the early 1990s, greatly encouraged and mentored by his father, Michael, he went pony racing for a couple of seasons, and was All-Ireland pony racing champions for two years in a row, 1992 and '93. Working with horses began with Kilcock trainer Pat Beirne, for whom he rode his first winner over hurdles, while he took out his apprentice licence with Joanna Morgan, who provided his first race ride. Michael Halford provided Maguire with ammunition to add another 24 winners on the flat. With his weight catching up on him on the flat, he went jumping, and his first winner was for Pat Beirne, Petitioner, over jumps at Limerick, which he was delighted his father was there to witness. Others he rode for included Tony Martin, Pat Hughes and Mouse Morris, and he notched up around 50 winners before he decided to go to England. He was second in the conditional jockeys' championship to Paul Hourican. "The opportunities were drying up for me in Ireland," he told the Meath Chronicle last year. "My claim was going - I was only claiming three pounds and there were more racing opportunities over there. I wasn't riding as much at home," he said. Agent Tom O'Mahony organised a job for him with Tom George, in Stroud, near Cheltenham, where Maguire still lives, with his fiancée, Lauren Kitchen. He started from scratch, working in the yard. Rupert Wakley was the number one rider. A conditional jockey, Maguire took whatever rides he could get, and as time went on he was getting more. In 2002, just a decade after his uncle won a Gold Cup, Maguire the younger had his first Cheltenham festival winner with Galileo for George in the Royal & SunAlliance Novices' Hurdle. He spent seven years with George, and his second Cheltenham Festival winner, White Oak in the inaugural David Nicholson Mares' Hurdle, was for his new boss, Donald McCain. "I first started riding a bit for Ginger McCain, through his friend, Sean Byrne from Dunboyne," Maguire explained. "Then, the operation got bigger when Donald took over, and I ended up going up there as stable jockey." Ginger McCain was famously associated with three time National winner, Red Rum and 2004 winner, Amberleigh House. He enjoys working with Donald McCain. Trainer and jockey have a good relationship, and Maguire describes McCain as very positive towards his horses, which in turn rubs off on him. One of his successful partnerships at the stable has been with Peddlers Cross. Maguire was caught between a rock and a hard place in 2007, when his friend Gordon Elliott offered him the ride on Silver Birch in the National. He remained loyal to McCain, riding Idle Talk, and Silver Birch went on to won the National with Robbie Power on board. However, Elliott, who saddled Backstage with Paul Carberry on board, was one of the first to congratulate him at Aintree on Saturday, and Donald McCain declared that "we owed Jason one, didn't we?" The dedication and hard work that Maguire has displayed to achieve his position in the championship was evident on Saturday, one of the toughest Grand Nationals run in recent years, with soaring temperatures and two fatalities. Injured in a fall at Aintree on Thursday, he rode with a dislocated thumb and bandaged hand, and stitched elbow, and the exhausted horse had to be doused with water immediately after the race, leaving the jockey to arrive back at the winners' enclosure alone, the first time in living memory that this has happened. With a surprise 50th birthday for his mother, Anne, in her workplace in Thornes of Kilmessan on Saturday night last, and his own 30th birthday this week, the Maguires couldn't have asked for a better present.