“IT seems like a fashion at the minute.” Ruby Walsh is grinning, as conversation turns (admittedly not by accident) to the spate of retirements in recent months, from A.P. McCoy through to Andy McNamara, Robert ‘Choc’ Thornton and his Closutton colleague, David Casey.
He looks lean and fit, healthy and strong. As we chat in his kitchen on Monday night, he has 36 winners recorded in Ireland already, having a couple of Grade 3s at Tipperary the previous day. He has also won an Australian Grand National. He is at the peak of his powers, propelled by the prospect of a treasure trove of horses to propel to further glory in the coming years.
But he’s 36. It’s not 46 but it isn’t 26 either. Not many jump jockeys continue beyond 40. Fewer still excel. Paul Carberry is a rarity. It is something Walsh acknowledges but in his black-and-white view, it would be ludicrous to consider calling it a day.
There is no pressure on him from wife, Gillian either. “No point. I wouldn’t waste my breath,” she interjects.
“I’m alright, Barry Cash is still there!” laughs Walsh, considering the changing face of the weigh-room. “I’m a couple of months older than Barry Geraghty and Davy Russell. I think there’s a gap back then but… we have to keep the young lads honest don’t we? Have to keep them working hard.
“The horses we have… I love what I do. Why would you be thinking about stopping? I’m still five years younger than McCoy so it’s a good bit off.
“I suppose there was a pressure on A.P. because he had built up that record, 20 times. There was a chance if he got hurt he wouldn’t be champion jockey and that was going to be a problem for him. I missed that many; if I get hurt, I’m not champion jockey this year, I might be champion jockey next year. It’s not like I’m on this crusade. To me, as long as I have good horses to ride and the people that own them and train them want me, I’ll be riding them.”
He isn’t motivated by the sheer number of winners. It’s the prestige and history that get the juices flowing. Whereas nobody will ever ride as many winners as McCoy did over obstacles, Walsh has almost double the number of Grade 1 victories that his great friend and rival managed (163-84).
Mind you, it was news to him when informed that Hurricane Fly’s Irish Champion Hurdle success on January 25th was his 150th. It is notable that he had added 13 by May 1st.
“Growing up I loved watching the BBC on a Saturday. Or Channel 4 or RTÉ. The big races always excited me. When I was riding my pony I wasn’t winning the beginners’ chase or a maiden hurdle at Fakenham. I was winning Grand Nationals and Gold Cups. I went up and down fields on ponies for hours on end but I was never winning a bad race.
CHELTENHAM
“When I started out my dream as a jockey was to ride a winner at Cheltenham. It wasn’t to be champion jockey. Would I be lucky enough to get a ride in the Grand National? If I was champion jockey, brilliant, and I’ve been champion jockey 10 times and it IS great but I always wondered about the big days.
“Then when you do it and it bites you… riding a winner in front of 65,000 on the first day at Cheltenham sure as hell beats riding four winners somewhere on a wet Thursday and three oul lads clapping you in. It’s great, and the winners have to be ridden, but you can’t replace Leopardstown at Christmas.
“Even when you ride the Thyestes… there’s probably one every week, some big race, with something to it. There’s great meetings. On Sunday there’s the Munster National. That’s a great race to win. It’s a good crowd, good atmosphere. There doesn’t have to be 65,000. If there’s five or six thousand, there’s a bit of a buzz. It’s great to ride winners on those days.
“Then you get into bigger horses, more pressure and there’s more hype and more written about it… And I enjoy the mental side of it too. Definitely.”
Meaning? “The hype, the pressure. Lads melting.”
The mischievous smile broadens and honest to God, the eyes are twinkling.
“I love it. You just see it. That bit of indecision in some of the lads.”
It’s not that he is impervious to the pressure but he is accustomed to it, usually at his best in those situations. He certainly doesn’t shy away from them. With the artillery at his disposal, he will have plenty more opportunities to display that.
DOMINANCE
There are some, though, who will argue that Willie Mullins’ dominance is bad for Irish racing, that it is almost impossible for other trainers to break through.
By extension, the same applies for young jockeys, with Walsh, Geraghty and Cooper holding the big jobs and the rest battling for scraps. Unsurprisingly, they need to go somewhere else for sympathy.
“What annoys me is that it wasn’t inherited. It was an operation that started small and has built… Himself and Jackie started with 10 horses and over 20 or whatever years they’ve built it to what it is. They have found the owners, got them to invest the money, found the staff, built the gallops and brought it all on. It’s building blocks and they’re reaping the benefit of it now.
“People say it’s not good for Irish racing? Compete with them. He wasn’t gifted it. He built it. Gordon Elliott is making a good goddam fist of it to catch up. So it’s like saying Kilkenny is bad for hurling. Why don’t the rest of them train a bit harder?
“I’m in there, I’m part of it. It had quadrupled by the time I started and has quadrupled in size since. I’ve watched it grow and I love being part of it and by f**k I’m going to defend them against anyone who wants to say it’s bad for Irish racing.
“But I just think there’s the challenge. Catch up.”
His message is the same to jockeys targeting the highest rung of the ladder.
“When I started I knew I had to be better than the lads that were riding to get the rides. Racing, at the end of the day, is a business. Very few talented, hard-working jockeys get missed. Very few make it but the ones that deserve to do. The ones that aren’t quite there, don’t.
“If you want to get my job, you’re gonna have to work harder than me and be better than me. I ain’t giving it to you. And it’s the same with Barry Geraghty. It’ll be the same for anyone. If you want to jock us off or get in ahead of us, you’re just gonna have to work harder and get better.”
He has mentioned Elliott making such remarkable strides in the training ranks. Johnny Burke and Adrian Heskin have got valuable retainers. Meanwhile, Davy Russell and Andrew Lynch suffered serious setbacks but knuckled down and remain in demand.
“Andrew Lynch, from losing the job, has had more rides than anyone. He didn’t go round feeling sorry for himself. He put his head down and worked his socks off.”
PERFECTION
Walsh is his own worst critic. Striving for perfection brings about improvement, but it is important too to accept that it is an unattainable goal. Still, having beaten himself up for tracking At Fishers Cross rather than More Of That in the World Hurdle just over 18 months ago on Annie Power, the mare’s inability to clear the final flight when on the brink of swatting aside the field in the mares’ Grade 1 at Cheltenham last March still leaves him shaking his head.
“I’d be all for going back to the Mares’ Hurdle. She’s been to Cheltenham twice now and she hasn’t managed to win yet.”
His voice lowers to a whisper.
“Some sickener that,” he adds, his right hand automatically moving to run his fingers through his silver mane, as if he is still trying to work it out.
Then, almost inaudible. “F**king hell.” Competitors care. And they hurt.
“I knew when she took off (we were in trouble), she was a long way off and the trajectory she took off at. She wasn’t getting high enough and there was only one result then. If she’d have got her foot out a bit further she could have stood on her head and still won. I don’t know. She always just gallops on. Why she decided to do that?”
Trails off. And then the calculated Ruby kicks in. “It’s history now. Can’t change it.”
For the record “she looks a million dollars” and could resume in something like the Hatton’s Grace.
If you’re talking top prizes though, the Gold Cup is the pinnacle. Djakadam went so close this year but Walsh might not even be on board next March if everything goes as he suspects or hopes. Vautour, he reasons, could be ultra-special.
“Then again, if you rock and roll on Vautour and Coneygree, Don Poli is there tagging along and he’d come at you. It’s the potential to be an unbelievable race. Depends on what gets there and what won’t happen. Maybe Vautour won’t stay. Maybe I’m dreaming to think a horse with that much pace can get three and a quarter miles.”
But sure it’s all about the dream.
“It is.”
HURRICANE FLY - He’s just a nutjob
“The Morgiana was brilliant. Leopardstown was brilliant. We knew we’d the screw turned in Punchestown. That was nearly the easiest day because everyone had nearly written him off bar us. Guess it was strange going out on Hurricane Fly as the underdog. He was good that day. Then Leopardstown in Christmas. He was tough. He sticks his head down and tries his heart out. You’d want to see him in Merano last week where he was leading the parade. It was like chasing a two-year-old. Gail could hardly lead him down the track and back up. You couldn’t get a sheet on him in the parade ring. Mentally he’s still only a three-year-old. I’m telling you, he’s just a nutjob.
“There’s so much life still in him. It’s great that he’s still there and still riding out and he’s still a handful. He has unbelievable enthusiasm and it’s great to see… There is so much reality in this game that there is no sad day when they retire. To me it’s like coming home from the war in one piece, isn’t it?
“It’s great. You look back on the days you had with him and all the fun. I suppose the sense of achievement that you could be part of a career for a horse that was so long, for so much to go right, so little to go wrong and disappear at the other end into the sunset, I think is brilliant.”
RUBY’S REFLECTIONS
Clondaw Warrior
“Great craic. The girls wanted a horse and we were long enough finding one. Bought for a bit of fun and they got plenty of it. You’d imagine he has to win a handicap hurdle off 130 somewhere along the way.”
Summer/Winter racing
“I’m glad to see the evenings drawn in. I’m not a massive fan of the evening meetings. I hate leaving somewhere three hours from home at nine o’clock at night. It is a drag but look, you have plenty of winners. I suppose dark nights mean more wet weather and softer ground as well. So it’s all to look forward to. I can’t wait for the rain.
“I find riding in the winter more enjoyable anyway. The quality helps but I find the summer is less demanding, definitely tactically. The ground is fast, the tracks are tight, it’s whatever can go the fastest and keep going will win. In the winter, everything has to be factored in. I prefer the challenge of winter racing.”
Making plans
“It’s been dry so we haven’t been schooling yet. But they’re all in eight weeks with groundwork done and those decisions have to be made. Everyone has an opinion but the only one whose opinion will count at the end will be William’s. Sometimes I think he just asks out of courtesy.”
Trip down under
“Australia was a great trip. We flew out of Dublin at nine on Friday morning, we were in Melbourne half five Saturday evening local time. We had a bit of dinner Saturday night with Bashboy’s owner Ian MacDonald, and his wife and son. Then flew from Melbourne to Ballarat the following morning with Ciaron Maher. Rode the horse, the horse won. Brilliant.
Flew back into Melbourne. We then had a tour of Melbourne. Flew us over Flemington, down over Albert Park where they hold the Grand Prix, flew us down as far as Caufield, came back in over the MCG, the Telstra Dome, the Rod Laver Stadium and put her back down on the river. Went out Sunday night, left Melbourne at one o’clock Monday and at home Tuesday morning at half-eight.
“Japan was great. Willie has Daneking and Urano entered in America next week. Willie’s gone global. Max Dynamite is in Melbourne. We were in Italy last week. That was a recce mission. We’ll have to come back next year armed differently. We learned what we’ll need.
“They’re big pots. The chase in Merano was a €250,000 race. The race the horse is entered in America is $300,000. That’s €248,000 this morning. We’d be looking at races here, even Leopardstown at Christmas… sure there’s no race worth a quarter of a million. The Paddy Power Chase is the richest race at Leopardstown over Christmas at €190,000.
“People say to me ‘What are you going to Italy for?’ They’re huge pots. There’ll be a few in France in November too.
“Have saddle will travel.”