Winners and Losers

Katie Walsh

My granddaughter Kelsy Rae
A Winner

I can't get over the resemblance that Kesy has to Katie.  A raw and brave natural beauty. When I first stumbled upon Spencer Murphy's winning photograph of Katie Walsh I thought immediately of Kelsy.

Spencer Murphy has won the £12,000 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2013 with a photograph of  Katie Walsh, an Irish jockey who came third in the Grand National 2012 and is probably one of the best, if not the best, female jump jockeys currently riding in the UK.

Taken at Kempton Park Racecourse the winning portrait of Katie Walsh was photographed whilst shooting a series of jump jockeys' portraits for Channel Four's The Original Extreme Sport campaign. ‘I was keen to include Katie,’ says Murphy: ‘I wanted to show both her femininity and the toughness of spirit she requires to compete against the best riders in one of the most demanding disciplines in horse racing. I chose to shoot the series on large format film, to give the images a depth and timelessness that I think would have been hard to achieve on a digital camera’. 

The Guardian

Katie Walsh rides Seabass to third place the highest ever finish for a female rider in the Grand National 

Photo: Getty Images

Grand National 2012: Katie Walsh breaks new ground for women coming third on Seabass.  Ted Walsh insisted that “one day a woman will win the Grand National” after the trainer saw his daughter, Katie, partner Seabass to finish third at Aintree – the best placing ever achieved by a woman in the race. 

By a nose: Neptune Collonges pips Sunnyhillboy at the post to win the closest-run Grand National in history

And then there's the down side:

 

 Carnage: Horses jump Beechers Brook at the start of the race. There were two confirmed fatalities.  Only 15 out of the 40 horses that started the race, finished. 

The problem is compounded by the uniquely arduous nature of the Aintree course, which is four-and-a-half miles long, having been extended by half-a-mile in 1975. The horses have to jump over 30 fences, which themselves are larger than those on any other course in Britain.

According to Pete ridden by Harry Haynes, left, falls after jumping Becher's Brook. The horse later had to be put down

Synchronised (circled in red) starts to fall after jumping the notoriously difficult Becher's Brook during the Grand National

In one of the most dramatic of the 165 Nationals, Synchronised’s bid to become the first horse to complete the Gold Cup-Grand National same season double since Golden Miller in 1934 ended dreadfully when he fell at Becher’s on the first circuit, unseating champion jockey AP McCoy, and then suffered a fatal injury as he continued riderless over the next few fences. 

Daily Mail UK