Born in Galway, Ireland in 1975 Graham Lee astounded everyone, when after years of relative obscurity, he won the 2004 Grand National on Amberleigh House, and then just two weeks later won the 28-runner Scottish Grand National on Grey Abbey. He also rode Amberleigh House in the Grand Nationals of 2005 and 2006 but without repeated success.

Lee had no horse racing background but was drawn to the sport as a result of living so close to the Galway racecourse, in the West of Ireland. His initial problem was the opposite of most jockeys in that he needed more weight rather than less, and the five foot six teenager had to adopt a high-protein diet in order to build himself up for National Hunt racing to a weight of nine stone ten pounds.

Lee rode his first winner, Blushing Pearl, in Navan in 1992 but it was almost a full decade before he achieved any notable victories. Then in the 2003 season he went ten weeks without a single winner, when suddenly he started pulling wins left, right and centre, including a four-timer at Wetherby.

He won no fewer than 94 wins from 625 rides, earning £1,356,423 in prize money and reaching third place in the jockey’s championship. Key factors in his new found success included his association with Howard Johnson, whose yard had been greatly boosted by the big-spending of its principal owner, Graham Wylie, as well as his partnership with Amberleigh House.

In the 2009 Grand National Lee rode Kilbeggan Blade who was highly tipped for an each-way bet but who, unfortunately, pulled up at fence 21. Who he chooses to ride for and partner up with in the 2010 Grand National could be quite telling because he is a great jockey and tends to pick horses that actually have a chance!

For all of the ante-post odds for the Grand National 2010 check out Paddy Power.

Timmy Murphy has had a pretty turbulent career by anybody’s standards but it’s not all doom and gloom. And if his metamorphic change over the last few years is anything to go by then it appears a leopard really change it’s spots!

Born 20 August 1974 in County Kildare, Ireland, Murphy is most famous for his victory in the 2008 Grand National on Comply or Die. In that race, he won by four lengths on the David Pipe-trained horse and in the process gave punters a ‘national victory’ as bookmakers faced multimillion pound payouts following a last minute surge in betting on Comply or Die.

His father was a former leading Irish amateur so it came as no surprise when he showed enthusiasm for the sport by working weekends for Cheltenham Gold Cup-winning trainer Noel Chance while still a schoolboy. After a spell under the supervision of Limerick trainer Michael Hourigan, Murphy moved over to the UK to work at Kim Bailey’s yard in the Cotswolds but it was here that the trouble started when he was dismissed for poor time keeping.

Off he went to Paul Nicholls stables but sadly, didn’t fair any better there when lost his job twice and landed himself with two drink-driving convictions. He was also banned for 30 days for persistent whip offences, which meant that he missed out on potentially riding a winner in the 1997 King George VI. One would think this would be rock bottom but not so in Murphy’s case because his ultimate low didn’t come about until 2002 when he was given a six month prison sentence for indecent assault after a drink-fuelled incident on a plane. Thankfully he left prison a changed man, teetotal ever since and has gone on to great things.

When Tony McCoy left champion trainer Martin Pipe in 2004, Murphy became the retained jockey to Pipe’s leading owner, David Johnson. It was therefore a fitting re-launch to Murphy’s career that it was Johnson’s horse Comply or Die that he brought to victory at the Grand National. Anybody else see the irony in Murphy riding a horse called ‘Comply or Die’??

If you want to back a potential Grand National runner for 2010 and like the ante-post odds being offered then just get yourself to Paddy Power for all the options…