Nina just one of the lads in male-dominated environment

SPORTSWOMAN OF THE YEAR AWARD:Nina Carberry was born to ride horses and is now being hailed as perhaps the best female rider in jump racing history. BRIAN O'CONNORreports

IT MAY seem a retrograde step to place Ireland’s Sportswoman of the Year in a male context, but pinpointing Nina Carberry’s unique achievement is impossible without doing so.

For those who watch racing on a regular basis, there are some things taken for granted, such as Aidan O’Brien training a lot of winners and Ruby Walsh being odds against to start running to fat any time soon.

Another is identifying the female jockey when competing against males. It’s remarkable how easy it usually is during a race.

Even women operating at the very highest level of the international flat racing scene can be readily identifiable from furlongs away.

Group One winners such as Hayley Turner in Britain or the glamorous Canadian Chantal Sutherland just seem to cut a different shape in the saddle.

But the remarkable feature of Nina Carberry’s glittering career is how seamlessly and unobtrusively she blends into

a still overwhelmingly male profession.

Afterwards, when returning to the winner’s enclosure, there isn’t a brighter smile in Irish racing.

That she should pull off such a double in the hardest most dangerous sport of all – National Hunt racing – is what makes the 27-year-old from near Ratoath, Co Meath such a unique sporting figure.

Holding her own among males, though, is something Carberry has been doing all her life.

As a member of one of the most famous of all Irish racing dynasties, horses and competition have been a constant.

Her father Tommy remains one of the all-time great Irish jockeys, a multiple Gold Cup winner who also rode and trained Grand National winners, and who with his wife Pamela, have continued an already proud family tradition with a vengeance.

Of their sons, three are jockeys.

Paul is a legendary figure after a tumultuous career both in and out of the saddle. Philip is a Champion Hurdle victor and a French Gold Cup winner, while Peter John is a rising star in Britain.

Growing up in such a family meant it required exceptional talent for their sole sister to stand out. That she had such ability was obvious from the start.

Carberry’s first racecourse ride at the Curragh 10 years ago was a winner over the famous Derby course and there was a polish to the girl still shy of her 17th birthday that stood out.

And that win was enough to make racing a priority.

A member of Ireland’s Under-16 basketball squad, and a silver medallist in the Under-18 All-Ireland high-hurdles, other sports were placed firmly on the sidelines.

Amateur jockey championships quickly followed, as did a first Cheltenham Festival success aboard the 25 to 1 Dabiroun in 2005.

Garde Champetre and Carberry have become fixtures over the banks course at the famous festival every March in the last few years, but even Garde Champetre can’t compete

with the resonance of Organisedconfusion’s Irish Grand National success last Easter.

Growing up just a few miles from Fairyhouse, the Irish National was a feature of life for Carberry anyway. But the race resonates throughout her family history.

Her grandfather, Dan Moore, trained the 1979 winner Tied Cottage.

Her uncle, Arthur Moore, trainer of Organisedconfusion, had both ridden and trained previous winners.

Carberry’s father, Tommy, twice rode Brown Lad to victory (1975-76) and produced Bobbyjo to win under Paul in 1998. As if all that wasn’t enough, Philip also landed an Irish National on Point Barrow in 2006.

Anne Ferris in 1984 had been the only woman ever to ride an Irish National winner before, but there was a perfect symmetry to Carberry joining her on such an exclusive roll-of-honour.

It remains a curiosity of Irish racing that being a top amateur jockey is a full-time job and Organisedconfusion’s Irish National has been the high-point of a decade of sustained excellence by this jockey.

For those who have pioneered the lot of women riders, she is a powerful symbol of what has been achieved in a comparatively short period of time.

It’s less than 40 years since women were licensed by the Turf Club to ride in Ireland. Joanna Morgan, now a successful trainer, was a ground-breaker in the 1970s and is fulsome in her praise of Carberry.

“Nina is phenomenal,” Morgan has said. “Like all the Carberrys, she is a natural.

“Horses run for her, which is the hardest thing of all for any jockey.”

At last week’s Horse Racing Ireland awards, Nina Carberry won the “Outstanding Achievement” crown for her win on Organisedconfusion.

In the process, she defeated five men who are at the top of the Irish racing tree, including the legendary trainer, Dermot Weld.

“I’m amazed to have won this considering who I was up against,” she said at when accepting the award.

The esteem in which Carberry is held can be gauged by how she was the only one surprised.