2001 Grand National - Jockeys

Jockeys

Twice former winner Carl Llewellyn was the most experienced rider in the weighing room, weighing out for a Grand National for the 11th time, including the void race of 1993, and unusually was the only rider in the field with ten rides under his belt. In addition there was also a higher-than-average number of rookies in the weighing room, though the ability of all 12 riders making their debut could not be questioned or offered as having any effect on the carnage that followed in the race. Noel Fehily carried the best chance of a winning debut but was among those knocked out of the race at the Canal Turn pile-up. Indeed none of the 12 debutants completed the first circuit, Jason Maguire going the farthest when pulling his mount up at the water jump. The remainder of the group included Tom Doyle, drafted in when Mick Fitzgerald was injured, John McNamara, Brian Crowley, Shay Barry, Fran Flood and Leslie Jefford. The remainder of the group was made up of Tom Scudamore, whose father and grandfather had both previously taken part in the race, the latter winning in 1959, and a trio of riders whose only ride in the race this proved to be for different circumstances; Jim Crowley, who went on to become a group one winner on the flat, Jamie Goldstein who missed the ride on the eventual winner the following year when suffering a broken leg weeks before the race, and Kieran Kelly who was killed racing in Ireland in 2003.