Ireland's young gun who's riding tall in the saddle

Willie Mullins analyses his subject like an approving headmaster.

"His finishes: excellent. His ability to get a horse jumping: excellent. Very good at thinking a race out for himself and is also capable of listening," he says. Any obvious area for improvement?

"Well, if he keeps on the same lines, I think there is little hope for improvement. Boring, isn't it!"

Mullins is used to talking about the subject. Almost as much as he is to talking about Florida Pearl. It isn't often that a red-hot Gold Cup favourite has to compete for column inches, but that has been the impact of Ruby Walsh this season.

Top of the jockeys' championship in his first season as a professional, twice amateur champion before and already a Cheltenham festival winner. To cap it all for the under-achievers among us, Walsh is just 19. He is already at the forefront of his profession and could easily stay there for 15 years. It is surely only a matter of time before his father starts to be referred to as Ruby Walsh's da. That will be something to see.

Ted Walsh is, after all, one of the most recognisable faces in the game to many Irish people. RTE broadcaster, successful trainer and a former champion jockey himself, Ted has the sort of natural bravado that just attracts attention. His son may not have quite the swagger off the saddle, but on it he could swagger for Ireland.

Possibly the most surprising aspect of Walsh's spectacular rise to prominence is that nobody is really surprised he has made it as a professional. Two spectacular years as an amateur made him familiar to racegoers as something of a ringer in the unpaid ranks. Winning the Cheltenham bumper on Alexander Banquet last March only proved it. But nobody could foresee how quickly Walsh would make it as a pro. With Charlie Swan taking a back seat, the prodigously talented Paul Carberry returned home to take up what he must have thought of as his rightful throne. Instead, Carberry is scrapping for his life to keep tabs.

"Yeah, I suppose it would be hard not to be conscious of how extremely lucky I've been," says the young Walsh. "It's a great life to be paid for doing something you love. Riding a good novice chaser over fences, for instance, is just a marvellous feeling." Walsh is the type of young man to appreciate such a feeling. The cliche of the swashbuckling, often boorish jump jockey doesn't apply to him. Not that he is a shrinking violet, but there is a thoughtfulness and an intelligence about him that can become quite obvious through races. While Carberry, for instance, can flamboyantly exhibit his vast range of talents, Walsh is more of a percentage man. This season the percentages have been in his favour, and Walsh is quick to acknowledge the role his father has played, as well as that of his sister Jennifer, who acts as his agent.

"He is always watching racing and he is straight on to the phone to me if he feels I have done anything wrong," Walsh says of his father. "He has been a huge help. Jennifer has too. She is very quick and on the ball. I remember ringing her from school on Friday lunchtimes to see if she could organise spare bumper rides. When I turned pro she said she wanted to keep doing it, and it's worked out great." School had been in Rathcoole where the Leaving Cert could not finish quickly enough - "I didn't even fill out the CAO forms. All I've ever wanted is to be a jockey" - and then he copper-fastened a link with Mullins that began over two years ago. "He had asked dad if I would be interested in working for him during the summers and it just took off from there. He has been fantastic to me. He's a very reasonable man who would rather have a conversation with you if you mess up than shout and bawl," says Walsh.

Mullins is equally effusive, despite having a delicate balancing act to maintain between his young prodigy and his other stable jockey, David Casey, who lies third in the jockeys' championship.

"The two appear to get on well and I try and put them on horses that will suit. Particular horses suit particular jockeys. Both are riding especially well. As for Ruby, I'm not surprised he has been successful but the amount of success he has had has surprised me. "He's a very sensible guy and he has a great commitment to riding," Mullins says. "He will need it because of his weight. It would be easy for a guy with his success to relax and put on weight, but while he may be constricted by it, a class rider will get the class horses." Walsh admits he has to be careful without being manic about his weight, and rarely goes below 10st 4lb. His immediate priorities though are to get stronger, fitter and tougher. Why tougher?

"I want to be able to take falls better. Look at Dunwoody or McCoy, they just seem to bounce back up when they hit the ground," he says, before pointing to Richard Dunwoody as a role model growing up. "You have to admire the man. He is much the same height as me (5ft 10in) and he has to fold over more to be neat in the saddle. The likes of (Adrian) Maguire are smaller, so it's easier for them, but when you're tall, it's hard to be neat," he says.

Walsh will be particularly interested in Dunwoody today as the former champion takes the hot seat on Florida Pearl. Not that Walsh, who regularly rides the horse at home, thinks it's that hot. "I think he'll win," he says easily. "He has improved and I don't think stamina is a problem. He has a lot of speed, but all the great Gold Cup horses have speed."

Something similar to the speed and effect of Ruby Walsh's impact this season should see Florida Pearl very much right today.