IT’S truly one of the most remarkable innings in all of sport. Ruby Walsh’s 58 winners so far at the Cheltenham Festival is quite simply phenomenal - and he’s still at the crease.

Ruby’s closest rival in the all-time list is a man who has his own impressive Festival score – Barry Geraghty has ridden 36 Festival winners – but Walsh has hit the ball right out of the park.

Ruby got his Cheltenham Festival career off to a gentle start with three singles in 1998, 2002 and 2003 but has managed at least two winners every year since then.

No jockey in history has hit Cheltenham for six in any given Festival but Ruby has hit it for seven, not once, but twice. Denis Kirwan caught up with the man whose Cheltenham records may never be surpassed ...

Denis Kirwan (DK): Ruby, what are your earliest Cheltenham memories?

Ruby: My earliest memories of Cheltenham are from 1986 – Dad winning the Foxhunter Chase on Attitude Adjuster. I suppose most people remember 1986 for Dawn Run’s win in the Gold Cup but I was only seven and my attention was very much on the Foxhunters rather than the Gold Cup.

DK: A good few years later [1997], your Dad trained Commanche Court to win the Triumph Hurdle. I’m sure that’s a day you’ll never forget?

Ruby: The year that Imperial Call won the Gold Cup – 1996 - was the first year I was ever at the Cheltenham Festival. Willie won the Bumper on Wither Or Which and Philip Fenton won the four-miler on Loving Around. I didn’t have a ride. I was there as a spectator.

In 1997, I went over to Cheltenham with Commanche Court and that was a really memorable day. He was flown over to Cheltenham on the Monday morning on a plane out of Dublin in company with Istabraq, Theatreworld and Finnegan’s Hollow. Istabraq won the Sun Alliance, Theatreworld was second in the Champion Hurdle to Make A Stand and Finnegan’s Hollow fell in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.

On the Thursday - and it was a three-day Festival at the time - Commanche won the Triumph. It was a brilliant trip, he was a wonderful horse and I can remember watching it from the last hurdle, clear as day, standing with Ted, watching it like it was yesterday.

DK: Little did you know then that the following year you would ride your first winner at the Festival?

Ruby: In 1998, my first ever ride at the Festival was on Papillon in the Kim Muir and I rode Thatswhatithought for Mouse Morris in the four-miler – he finished second. But to win the Bumper on Alexander Banquet - you couldn’t have dreamt it.

I had ridden a lot of the good bumper horses in Ireland that year - I had won on Joe Mac - and I honestly though that he would have been too fast for Alexander Banquet but Alexander Banquet outstayed him. Going there I didn’t think would happen, so it was massive, brilliant, a terrific surprise.

DK: I was just looking back at that race Ruby and it was terrific battle up the Cheltenham hill in near darkness. It was some ride now, in fairness. You must look back on that and think what a magic moment that was.

Ruby: Ah, he was a very tough horse. He stayed really well. I got a good break on him. He travelled super and I was rolling on him from the top of the hill. It was some feeling to round the bend at Cheltenham in front.

Obviously, Joe Mac arrived on my outside and, for a lot of the way up the home run, it was touch and go. When we approached the last furlong, Alexander Banquet was starting to pull away, but I suppose, like all last furlongs, when you’re in front and are thinking you’re going to win, they tend to go forever. That feeling hasn’t changed. They’re still long but I remember that one being particularly long.

DK: That was your first winner – in 1998 – so, who were the kingpins of the Cheltenham weigh room at that stage?

Ruby: I suppose Richard Dunwoody. A.P. was young but was already champion jockey at that stage, Graham Bradley, Norman, Charlie, Conor, all the top jockeys of that generation. I don’t know if there was ever a kingpin but they were all fellas you looked up to.

To go in there and change and to go out to ride with them was a treat in itself. Dickie Johnson was young and starting to fly and Choc Thornton was a champion amateur like myself. You end up sitting with the lads your own age and you tend to look across the weigh-room at the older guys.

When you are young you see the weigh room a bit differently than you do when you’re older but it was nice to be in there.

DK: Who did you look to for advice about riding at Cheltenham?

Ruby: Willie and Dad would have given me the most advice. They were the ones I would naturally turn to for advice.

DK: You have had at least one winner at the Festival every single year from 2002 to 2018 - a run of 17 years - that must be a record you are particularly proud of.

Ruby: (laughs): It’s one I hate talking about because you are always afraid it won’t happen and that an end will come to it.

I have been very lucky in those years at Cheltenham. From the time that I started working for Paul Nicholls while Willie’s string has grown and strengthened. I have been lucky to go to Cheltenham with a lot of fancied rides.

People would often say, ‘God - that’s a lot of pressure’, but I always saw it differently. The more fancied rides you had, the more chances you had of riding winners. The more favourites you could get on, the better you were going. So I was very lucky.

For many years, you had Big Buck’s and Quevega and they were bankers - they were just so far ahead of the opposition in the races they were running in. It’s great to go to Cheltenham with an ace in your pack that can get that pressure off you.

With success comes expectation and no matter what way you look at it, you have to be realistic. Some year I am going to go to Cheltenham and draw a blank. I dread the thought of it but you know, it could happen some year.

DK: When you look back at the record, you have been leading jockey at the Festival for 11 out of the last 14 years, which is incredible in itself. You have had seven winners twice and nobody else has ever had even six winners over the course of a Festival, so do you look back on it and think I have been a lucky so-and-so?

Ruby: (pauses) Yeah. I have. I suppose one of the years I rode seven, I rode three for Willie and four for Paul while the other time I rode all seven for Willie.

Somebody once asked me how important a jockey is to a horse. I think it is the other way around. It’s how important a horse is to the jockey. You have to have the horses and I have been very fortunate that the yards I have worked for have both had a lot of high class horses.

The first champion that I rode, I suppose, was Azertyuiop. From there on, I have come across incredible horses that all have their place in Cheltenham history and I was just been lucky enough to be the one riding them.

From Master Minded, to Kauto Star, to Big Buck’s, Denman, Hurricane Fly, Annie Power, Faugheen, Vautour, Douvan, Un De Sceaux, Quevega and Footpad. I have just been incredibly lucky to come across some brilliant, brilliant racehorses.

DK: I was just looking back at a YouTube clip of your most memorable rides at Cheltenham and understandably Alexander Banquet was number one on your list as he was your first winner but it’s no surprise that the great Kauto Star features prominently…

Ruby: The Gold Cup is the highlight of the meeting. It’s an incredible race to ride in. It’s a great race to be part of. To have ridden the winner of it twice is amazing.

He was a brilliant racehorse. I mean they were two very different races. The first year was a huge field and his stamina was unknown. It was a slowly-run Gold Cup. I don’t think I have ridden in too many of those. I was at the back of a huge field and I snuck around on the inside but, when I pulled him out, the acceleration he showed was awesome.

That was a very special day but then obviously the following year Denman beat him. And then we went back to try and regain it, you know, and rode him completely different. He was on the pace every step of the way. It was an end-to-end race and he powered away to win.

To turn off the bend in a Gold Cup knowing you had the better of Denman and knowing that there was nothing else coming from behind you, that was a brilliant feeling.

DK: No horse has ever regained the Gold Cup, were you aware of the sense of history there?

Ruby: I don’t know do I delve too much into the sense of history of anything. I take each race for what it is and what it means to you. You know, to me it was just Kauto Star winning a Gold Cup, it wasn’t regaining a Gold Cup, it wasn’t settling a score.

It was just winning the race that he was in. The year before, the best horse on the day won and in 2009, the best horse on the day won. I don’t tend to delve into history too much.

DK: In 2017 you rode a four-timer on the one day and nobody had ever done that before. That was a brilliant day as well, I’m sure.

Ruby: I was aware of that fact. In 2015, it looked like happening until Annie Power tipped up at the last. To ride a double at Cheltenham is brilliant, a treble is amazing and to be that close to have ridden a four-timer, I mean lots of people go through their whole career without riding a four-timer but to go and ride one at the Cheltenham Festival, that was going to mean something.

Annie caught the top of the last and turned over and it took the gloss off a brilliant day. To have won the Supreme Novices’, the Arkle and the Champion Hurdle, yet to be still disappointed at the end of the day, that didn’t make sense to me.

But to go back then a couple of years later when things hadn’t gone great on Tuesday and Wednesday and then to go out on Thursday for Yorkhill to collect, Un De Sceaux to put in the performance he put in, Nichols Canyon to come from off the pace and wear them down and Let’s Dance then to go on to win.

It’s amazing how people don’t see things, you know, they only see the results.

She was so lucky at the last, she changed her mind in mid-air and hit the top bar. She got away with it and collected. It was brilliant. It was a wonderful day.

DK: You have had so many great rides at Cheltenham Festivals down through the years. You mentioned Yorkhill in the JLT in 2017 – that was a ride that received plenty of praise. Is there any particular ride at the Festival that you are particularly proud of. And why?

Ruby: No, not any particular one. You know, they were all different rides. Some of them were similar, some of them very different. There’s no set way to ride Cheltenham. I have ridden winners from the front and have ridden winners from just behind the pace, from mid-division and I have ridden winners there coming from the next parish. No, every winner at Cheltenham is wonderful. Obviously, the championship races are a bit more high profile but I wouldn’t think there was one particular ride I thought - yeah, great.

DK: You spoke about Annie Power and the disappointment of that day in 2015. If there was one horse you would love another go at, is that the one that got away or is there another?

Ruby: No, sure that didn’t get away. She stood too far back and fell. That didn’t get away. If I was to ride one again, I’d love to ride Commanche Court in the Gold Cup again. I would tactically do something different on him. If I rode Annie Power another 100 times, I would tactically ride her the very same way. I put her in the right place to win the race and she fell. If I was to ride another race again to do something tactically different, I’d have ridden Commanche Court differently in the Gold Cup (2002).

DK: You came back from injury to ride a treble at the 2011 Festival and that included a Champion Hurdle win on Hurricane Fly. You tend to get over your setbacks well. You have proven that time and time again but 2011 was a classic example of that.

Ruby. Yes, I suppose 2018 was no different. (Long pause) You can look at life in lots of different ways but if you keep looking behind you, you will never see what’s in front of you. The world is all about what’s next. What’s over can’t be changed.

I remember Mick Kinane saying that to me years ago. I was having lunch with him one day and was quizzing him – I was probably wrecking his head - but he said, “No, you can’t change the past, you can only affect the future”. I remember thinking that’s such good advice. So, you say you bounce back from your injuries. I can’t change the fact that I’ve missed all that racing. I can only focus on what I’m coming back to ride and when you ride in the first in Cheltenham, it’s history.

You can’t stand in the weigh-room or talk to yourself in the mirror in the bathroom and think about how great you were. That’s over. It’s about the next race. That’s the way sport is. I think a lot of people in life, if they looked forward and stopped looking back, they might make life easier for themselves as well.

DK: The hype surrounding Cheltenham seems to gets bigger and bigger with each passing year. Do jockeys and trainers ever get tired of that or are you just as excited as the rest of us?

Ruby: I try to do as little talking about it as I can. I try and stay as focused as I can on it in my own mind. I tend to do as few previews as I can. I probably don’t read about it as much as everybody else.

I try and take my own opinion to Cheltenham. I can accept if my own opinion is wrong, but it bugs me if I do something wrong listening to some body else’s opinion, so I tend to stay out of the hype as best I can.

Denis adds: As always, Ruby Walsh is utterly engaging. He’s a bullshit free zone, he turns 40 in May. He won’t be around forever, so enjoy him while you can. ?