JT McNamara

John Thomas "JT" McNamara (8 April 1975 – 26 July 2016) was an Irish amateur steeplechase jockey. He won over 600 racecourse victories during his career. He sustained a serious back injury and a broken neck after a fall at the 2013 Cheltenham Festival which left him paralysed and confined to a wheelchair.

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 fall at Cheltenham.^[4]

Personal life

McNamara was married to Caroline and the couple had three children. McNamara lived in his country of birth, Ireland.^[5]

He suffered complications in July 2016 before being transferred to University Hospital Limerick and then discharged to spend his final days with his family. He died at his home on 26 July 2016 at the age of 41.^[6][7]

References