Of all champion jockeys of modern times, Richard Dunwoody has achieved the most outstanding record in the Grand National. When you look at his background his achievements are not hugely surprising - he was bred to be a winner. Born in January 1964 into a racing family in County Antrim, his father George, had run away from home as a teenager to work with horses and became a jockey-turned-trainer, while his grandfather on his mother's side was Epsom trainer Dick Thrale, who amongst his many successes, sent out Indigenous to win at his local course under Lester Piggott in 1960. Richard was therefore riding a pony at the age of two and hunting with hounds by the age of six!

But it was not just his family connections and early start into the world of horses that led Dunwoody to such success - it was sheer willpower. When he was at boarding school he starved himself to the point of collapse and hospitalisation, such was his determination to become a jockey. And following his retirement, Dunwoody revealed in his autobiography Obsessed, that he was literally obsessed with riding winners, which he pursued to his own emotional detriment.

In 1981 he joined Captain Tim Forster's yard in Letcombe Bassett, and his first ride in a two-mile race at Chepstow saw him finish second on Mallard Song. His first winner was in 1983 on Game Trust, and in his first professional season in 1984-85 he rode 46 winners, including two wins at the Cheltenham Festival, with Von Trappe and West Tip. He partnered West Tip again for their first appearance in the Grand National, but fell at the 22nd fence, Becher's Brook. Twenty-one year old Dunwoody vowed that the same thing would not happen again, claiming afterwards that 'We'll come back next year and win' - which they did!

The disastrous voided National of 1993 did not disappoint Dunwoody too much as the horse he was to ride Wont Be Gone Long, wasn't on top form and soon afterwards Dunwoody's main competitor Peter Scudamore, first jockey to Martin Pipe, who had won the Jockeys Championship in seven consecutive seasons announced his retirement, which left Dunwoody open to win his first jockey's championship, after being runner-up three times previously. Dunwoody then went on to become Pipe's first jockey in 1993.

Dunwoody claims the highlight of his racing career to have been his Grand National win of 1994 on Miinnehoma. He remembers crossing Melling Road when Adrian Maguire, his new arch rival, riding the better horse, Moorcroft Boy, appeared alongside him, looking to be going supremely well. Dunwoody shouted: 'Don't you think you have won enough this year without taking the National off me, too?' Maguire didn't take it off him and Dunwoody won by one and a half lengths.

Unfortunately Dunwoody's career; in which he had three times been champion jockey, had ridden more than 100 winners in ten consecutive seasons, finished first in 1,699 of 9,399 races (which at the time of his retirement was the most wins ever achieved in Britain by a jump jockey); ended when he was 35 and still a leading National Jockey due to extreme muscular damage to his right arm.

All of that achieved and Dunwoody still claims that his greatest personal achievement was his 673 mile trek to the South Pole in January 2008, but he does admit that in being a jockey, he got to live his dream.