RACING:With Cheltenham looming, BRIAN O'CONNORfinds out why Ireland's top National Hunt jockey shows no sign of letting up despite having nothing left to prove
IT’S A question that champions have faced in every sport: what do you do when you’ve won everything? Many decide to call time, content there’s nothing left to prove. Ruby Walsh’s answer appears to be to try and win everything all over again.
On the eve of the racing week that matters more than any other, the man whose name has become synonymous with the entire sport, and made him identifiable even to those whose equine interest extends no further than a once-a-year Grand National bet, remains in an entirely unique position.
He continues to have the pick of the best rides in the two top yards in Britain and Ireland and is a long odds-on shot to yet again be the top rider at the Cheltenham festival, where he is already the most successful jockey in history.
Potentially waiting for the Irishman are a trio of superstar horses that have already provided many of the glittering highlights of Walsh’s career.
Given a clean bill of health, a third Gold Cup triumph for the veteran Kauto Star – rated the best steeplechaser since the days of Arkle – would provide the sort of ludicrously perfect denouement to the festival that could have Steven Spielberg coming a calling for the dewy-eyed movie rights.
Big Buck’s will create a unique status for himself if a four-in-a-row in the World Hurdle is completed and Hurricane Fly’s position as an odds-on favourite to complete back-to-back Champion Hurdle victories is unarguable.
They are the jewels in an unequalled book of Cheltenham rides that help make their jockey the defining figure of yet another festival. Paul Nicholls and Willie Mullins may train the great horses Walsh rides, but he is the unifying figure in all their stories. Put simply, Walsh is yet again the story around which Cheltenham revolves.
Hurricane Fly’s tumultuous triumph last year filled the one gaping hole in his rider’s big-race CV. The Champion Hurdle had proved frustratingly elusive over the years, unlike every other significant race on the calendar. And yet that long-awaited success hasn’t appeared to quench Walsh’s ambition in the slightest.
Despite major injuries this season, he has bounced back in style and is remorselessly closing the gap on Davy Russell en route to yet another jockey’s title in Ireland.
When not riding at home, he maintains the grind of travelling to Britain for the major meetings, all the while juggling the demands and egos of Nicholls and Mullins. The fact they continue to share their jockey is perhaps the greatest compliment Walsh will ever receive, and certainly the one he values most.
But there is a sense he is now venturing into virgin territory. At 32, and with nothing left to prove, least of all to himself, there could be no boundaries to the scale of Walsh’s dominance. Theoretically he could continue to an age that would make that trademark grey hair seem entirely appropriate.
Colleagues like Barry Geraghty and “Choc” Thornton now openly speak about continuing their careers until they are 40. Walsh’s great rival and friend Tony McCoy is five years older than him and remains as potent a force as ever.
With longevity becoming more and more a feature of elite sporting careers, dreams of more lengthy sporting lives are understandable. Except of all sports, National Hunt racing has a habit of putting presumption on its posterior, often painfully.
“The reality is that injuries are the problem. Avoid injuries and you can continue riding for as long as you like. But injuries make you think. And if you’re thinking too much, and hurting too much, that shortens your career,” says the Gold Cup-winning trainer, and former top jockey, Tom Taaffe.
Walsh has endured a litany of smashes. He has broken legs, fractured his wrist, dislocated one hip, fractured another, cracked vertebrae, dislocated shoulders and has had his spleen removed. In the race before the 2010 Grand National he famously broke his arm in a dramatic spill. The former Gold Cup and Champion Hurdle-winning jockey Conor O’Dwyer rode until he was 42 but enjoyed freakish luck in terms of injuries.
“It’s easier to keep going if you’re riding good horses, but I was finding in the last couple of years that I wasn’t 100 per cent keen on going for the smaller races and if you’re not 100 per cent, you shouldn’t be doing it,” he says.
“I couldn’t see Ruby getting to the stage where he is picking and choosing, only riding the big races. He has to be full-on, or he won’t do it at all. With Ruby, he’s either in completely or he’s out,” O’Dwyer adds. “But it’s hard to go on that long. It’s a tough game.”
There is certainly no evidence of Walsh’s famously steely focus diluting in the slightest. At a recent meeting in Naas, a charity “Olympics” for jockeys, hosted by Hector Ó hEochagáin, and featuring egg and spoon races and the like, was held, featuring almost all the top Irish riders. Walsh, who won on his only two mounts of the day, was conspicuous by his absence, remaining in the jockey’s room getting ready for the next race, opting to avoid the silliness outside.
There is no doubt he would have been the star attraction. It is racing’s good fortune that so many of its leading personalities down the decades have been so readily identifiable. Just as there was never any doubt who “Lester” was, then the same applies to “Ruby”. It is a name that has percolated into the general public’s consciousness.
Walsh was famously christened Rupert, and even the derivative of that was a name to make one sink or swim in the schoolyard. But Ruby Walsh was never likely to sink. He can cut a more reflective figure than his father, Ted, the television commentator and trainer famous for his blunt turn-of-phrase, yet admits to not being the friendliest person in the world.
“I don’t think I’m cocky or arrogant but I have no doubt that I can come across like that sometimes,” he wrote in his biography.
Those who know him well testify to a down-to-earth character with a good sense of humour and a highly sensitive bullshit detector. The arrival of two little girls in his life has reportedly mellowed him somewhat and put in perspective the business of passing a little red lollipop in front of everyone else.
“He’s a good character, a proper character,” Taaffe says. “But he’s in a highly sensitive position. There’s all that wasting and starving, jumping from plane to car, and hardly stopping, so there’s no time to stop and conversations with everyone who wants a piece of his time.”
What everyone recognises, however, is that Walsh is among the finest jump jockeys of his or any other generation. For many within Irish racing he has set new standards. Taaffe describes him as the best he has ever seen, the “complete package” in terms of his abilities. Conor O’Dwyer agrees.
“He’s the best in every respect, not just the riding. He’s ridden a few of mine and what he can tell you about a race beforehand is incredible. The homework is always done. He knows every horse, and nine times out of 10 knows exactly how a race will pan out. But what he can tell you about the horse afterwards is invaluable. So you’re not just getting Ruby Walsh for the four or five minutes of the race. You’re getting the total approach,” he says.
Quite a few people might not like to remember this time last year and how they believed Paul Townend was a better option for Hurricane Fly rather than Walsh, who returned to action just a week before the festival and had yet to ride a winner.
Willie Mullins must have been aware of the momentum behind Townend who had won three-in-a-row on the brilliant hurdler. But his reasoning was simple.
“How do you not put up Ruby?” he asked.
Sure enough, in the very first race of the festival Walsh won on Al Ferof, then landed the Champion Hurdle and wound day one up with a hat-trick on Quevega. Yet again, point proved.
“He’s one of these guys that if he rides a couple of winners on a day, it’s not ‘hooray’ but more like he’ll remember about one that might have won if he’d ridden it differently,” Taaffe says.
“McCoy and himself are very alike that way. They’re good friends but they spark off each other. They drive one another on. Ruby’s commitment is unreal. He has the best of all worlds but that’s hasn’t happened by accident. Put it like this; his arse spends more time on a plane than it does on the sofa at home.”
When Walsh eventually calls time on race-riding, the widespread presumption is he will start training, possibly even in the more lucrative branch of the sport on the Flat. He himself has admitted to not being sure.
Watching the 24-7 demands on Mullins and Nicholls, who always have to be available to owners, whatever the time of day or night, means he worries about whether he has the patience required to keep so many balls juggling. Against that is the reality that the horse game is all he has ever known.
But that quandary is one that can be parked well into the future. Despite the workload, Walsh gives no indication of slowing down. The master of timing out on the racecourse is no mean judge off it either and realises better than anyone the unique position he is in.
“When I was growing up all I ever wanted to do was be lucky enough to ride one winner at Cheltenham,” he has said. Currently Walsh’s tally is 32 two. The nature of the festival means surprises and upsets always happen. But it will be the biggest shock of all if that Cheltenham total isn’t significantly increased come Friday evening.
THREE OF THE BEST
Ruby Walsh's top prospects this week
KAUTO STAR
A legend of the sport with a record five wins in the King George VI Chase and Gold Cup victories in 2007 and 2009. At 12 he has looked rejuvenated, but an injury scare is not what you want just before a clash with Long Run. However, this season it is 2-0 to the veteran superstar who has earned close on €2.5 million in a 40-race career that has earned comparisons with the great Arkle.
HURRICANE FLY
Walsh is unbeaten in six rides on Ireland's "Horse Of The Year" who is rated the best Champion Hurdle winner since Istabraq. Beaten just once in his last 11 races, the Fly put up possibly his most visually impressive performance to date at Leopardstown in January. Rapidly turning into a flagship performer for Irish racing, defeat on Tuesday would be devastating for many.
BIG BUCK'S
Four-in-a-row would be a unique achievement in Thursday's World Hurdle but defeat is almost out of the question for the outstanding stayer, rated just about unbeatable by his jockey. Famously unbeaten in his last 15 starts since abandoning a chasing career, the nine-year-old is a worry off the track but a nightmare for his opposition on it.
