Former National Hunt jockey Andrew McNamara has been granted a trainer’s licence and is to be based in Westmeath. The 32-year-old retired from the saddle last year and has been renting stables at Dot Love’s Charlestown yard near Mullingar. The Turf Club has awarded the Limerick native a licence to carry him through to the end of the current season.
A 15-time Grade 1-winning rider, McNamara famously enjoyed victory in the Queen Mother Champion Chase when Newmill scored for John Joseph Murphy at Cheltenham. Other big wins came on the likes of Beef Or Salmon, Sizing Europe and Hidden Cyclone, and he exits the scene having been associated with some of the best and most popular horses around throughout his 16-year career.
McNamara retired last August. He said recently: “I’m renting some stables at Dot Love’s yard. She is pre-training all the Gigginstown horses so the facilities are second to none. In that respect I’ll be better off than if I was starting off somewhere else on my own.”
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