ALMOST a quarter of a century after his epoch-defining career in the saddle got underway, Ruby Walsh called time on his riding career and he did so on the back of a trademark big race tour de force in which he partnered Kemboy to a tremendous victory over the reigning Gold Cup champion Al Boum Photo.

Few sporting greats are able to pick a moment so opportune to call time on their careers but it was entirely appropriate and so well deserved that Walsh was afforded this opportunity.

After a career that yielded a first success in July 1995, Walsh has amassed 12 Irish jockeys’ championships, two amateur titles, 11 leading rider awards at the Cheltenham Festival, 59 Cheltenham Festival winners, 213 Grade 1 victories, 2768 career wins.

Truly his achievements are nonpareil and rank alongside anything that Irish sporting history has to offer. That myriad of stunning accomplishments reached a close on Wednesday evening and a perfect one at that. This final ride came in a race he first won on Imperial Call in 1999, it was achieved with the rider’s ever present ally Willie Mullins, it came at his local track and it arrived at a meeting where he has been the leading rider on 13 occasions.

As he crossed the line on Kemboy, Walsh stood high in the irons and turned to the crowd but on this occasion it was a wave to the assembled crowd rather than a salute and a few minutes later it became apparent that the rider was bidding farewell to his career in the saddle.

“That’s it, you’ll never see me on a horse again. I am finished. Racing has been great to me but it doesn’t last forever,” exclaimed Walsh who was surrounded by his family and friends.

“I was going to go out when I won a big one. I’m not a poker player and when Kemboy won I wasn’t going to roll the dice again,” said Walsh afterwards.

“To me the decision (to retire) probably came last summer. I felt if I could get through this year without injury I would get out at Punchestown. I was always taught that it’s all about the big occasion. I suppose being honest if Rathvinden had won the Grand National I would have gone out on him, there is no bigger day than that.

“I had talked to Gillian (wife) about it for a while and there comes a time that you want to do something else and I have been a jump jockey for 24 years.

“I have been so lucky since day one to ride so many incredible horses. I never dreamt I would get to ride the equine athletes that I have, and no jockey is any good without the horses, and the horses are such a huge part of it. From the very beginning, with Imperial Call here 20 years ago to Alexander Banquet, Kauto Star, Master Minded, Big Buck’s, Hurricane Fly, Annie Power, Quevega, Kemboy, Un De Sceaux. In anyone’s lifetime, I rode the best horses,” he continued.

“There have been five or six bad days in my lifetime, but those have come in a graveyard when we have been burying someone. John Thomas, Kieran Kelly, Sean Cleary, Dary Cullen, Jack Tyner, Tom Halliday. Those were the only bad days I have had in racing.

“Horses made me and I was lucky I got a great tuition from my father, I had a great agent in my sister Jennifer, who minded me, and I worked for the two best trainers in Paul Nicholls and Willie Mullins.

“Was there ever going to be a good day to stop riding for Paul Nicholls, no. Was the ever going to be a good day to stop riding for Willie Mullins, no but there has to be a day. I’ve had plenty of practice (through injury) at watching good horses win good races so I don’t think it will be that hard. There’s a difference watching a horse you could have ridden as opposed to watching one that you can’t ride.

“I’ve been looking forward to this day not dreading it and now that it’s here I’m happy about it,” he concluded.