Horse racing-Paralysed jockey McNamara dies, aged 41

LONDON, July 26 (Reuters) - Irish jockey JT McNamara, who was paralysed after a fall three years ago, has died, aged 41, the British Horseracing Authority said on its website on Tuesday. McNamara rode more than 600 winners in his career including Teaforthree in the 2012 National Hunt Chase at Cheltenham. "We are extremely saddened to hear of the passing of JT McNamara," Nick Rust, chief executive of the BHA, said. "None of us will forget his four Cheltenham Festival winners, in which his remarkable talent was so clearly highlighted. Nor will we forget the day of his accident. "The entire sport shared in the concern for JT. Nowhere was this more evident than among his fellow riders, who came together to show support for a popular colleague and a great horseman." Father of three McNamara fractured two vertebrae in his neck in a fall on Galaxy Rock at Cheltenham in 2013. Twenty-times champion jockey AP McCoy led the tributes. "He was a very tough man. Very mentally tough and has been for the last three and a half years since the accident," McCoy told the BBC. "He was a brilliant man and a brilliant amateur jockey. The last three and a half years have been tough for him and his family -- his wife was unbelievable for him. "It is a sad day." (Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Pritha Sarkar)