Ruby Walsh goes to town

The bookmakers were still counting the cost of their defeat by the time the architect of it emerged from the weighing room on Friday night. There was no time to spare, let alone celebrate. “Got six rides at Naas tomorrow,” he explained. After riding an unprecedented seven winners over the four days of the Festival, Ruby Walsh could fly there by himself.
“I don’t know how you can ride today,” his trainer Paul Nicholls rang to tell Walsh yesterday. “I’m knackered.” But Walsh knew exactly what kept him going. “It’s easy, Paul, if you’re riding good horses,” he answered.
Yesterday, the villagers of Ditcheat, home of the most powerful jump racing stable in the land, turned out once again to honour their stars, the ones they hear clicking to work every morning. No-one knew the small Somerset village had so many residents. The main street was blocked and the Gold Cup was passed round like a loving cup, returning every now and again to its keeper.
Only little Olivia, Nicholls’ youngest daughter, seemed less than overwhelmed by the photo-opportunity.
Last year, the stable celebrated 1-2-3 in the Gold Cup and in Master Minded the horse of the Festival; this time, it was 1-2-4-5, with only the defeat by a neck of Celestial Halo denying the champion trainer a clean sweep of the major championship races. Master Minded defended his title in the Queen Mother Chase, Big Buck’s landed the World Hurdle and, unforgettably, Kauto Star became the first horse in Cheltenham history to reclaim his Gold Cup crown, sweeping aside the indignities of 12 months ago with a 13-length victory over Denman, his stablemate and old foe.
“There can be no doubts now,” said Nicholls yesterday. “He’s one of the greatest horses ever. To do what he did in the Gold Cup ended all arguments. If we keep him fresh and fit, he could run in another three Gold Cups. Who knows?”
Walsh was there in spirit alone, his pursuit of perfection on both sides of the Irish Sea undimmed by its near- attainment on the biggest stage of all. Nicholls was still shaking his head at Walsh’s ride on Big Buck’s in the World Hurdle. “A lot of jockeys would have gone wide but he switched him back inside,” he said. “No fear, you see.” Walsh also changed his whip hand within sight of the post. Not many would have attempted that.
Nobody who has studied the graph of Walsh’s career, the steeply rising curve of a prodigy, would be remotely surprised by the revelation. His later days at school were spent pestering his sister, and now agent, Jennifer to find him rides at weekends.
As an amateur, he emulated his father, Ted, by winning the title and riding a Festival winner (Alexander Banquet); in his first year as a professional, barely out of his teens, he won the senior title, too. At the age of 20, he rode Papillon, a horse trained by his father, to win the Grand National, a day of high emotion that still claims pride of place in his affections nine years on. Soon after came the introduction to the rigours of his chosen profession as well: one broken collarbone and two broken legs in his second full season in the senior ranks.
“His finishes: excellent. His ability to get a horse jumping: excellent. He is very good at thinking a race through for himself, but he’s also very capable of listening.” An apt summary of Walsh’s strengths over the past week? No, that was the Irish trainer Willie Mullins listing the talents of his new young jockey in the winter of 1998.
Walsh’s link with the Cheltenham Festival stretches back a further decade, to the day in 1986 when his father won on Attitude Adjuster. On the horse and off it, Ted was a force of nature, never the most stylish of riders but a highly effective communicator with both whip and microphone. Ted Walsh moved seamlessly from the saddle to the commentary booth, while training a dozen or so horses in his spare time. Once sure of his son’s talent and ambition, Ted made it his business to pass on his own knowledge and experience.
“Dad taught me everything, what kind of horses to ride, which way to ride, dealing with trainers, owners and press,” Walsh said. “Even now he puts me right.” At the yard of Enda Bolger, Ruby — he was christened Rupert, but, like his grandfather, quickly became “Ruby” — also learnt to sit quietly on a horse and use his legs rather than his arms to communicate. “I am not a big one-two-three bang jockey,” he once said. “The less you interfere, the better.”
The measure of Walsh’s success both as a person and a jockey is that, somehow, armed with an encyclopaedic knowledge of flight timetables and a fetching way, he manages to keep the most powerful trainers in England and Ireland just about happy, just about all the time.
“We’re just great friends,” said Nicholls of his stable jockey. “He’s intelligent and he’s a great team player. The other day he came down to the yard just to watch two lots. He didn’t have to do that. Before him, we had all sorts of nightmares on the jockey front, but he’s tactically brilliant and he’s smart. We’ll all have to watch out if he ever starts training.”
Watching Walsh handle himself in the aftermath of Kauto Star’s historic win on Friday was to see a man in utter command of his destiny. No question was left unanswered but daft questions were summarily dispatched. Had he been impressed by Kauto Star’s victory? “Obviously, he won by 13 lengths.” But there were no recriminations, there was no attempt to settle scores from the previous year when Walsh had chosen Kauto Star over Denman and been proved wrong. Denman’s performance, Walsh said, had surprised him more than Kauto Star’s.
Standing on the steps of the weighing room as the twilight descended on another Festival, Charlie Swan recalled some early jousts with a young but already greying Ruby Walsh.
“He was really clued in from the start,” said the most prolific Irish jump jockey of all time. “He would ask a lot of questions. Mind you, he used to follow me a lot in those days.”
It is the rest who are left in Ruby’s wake now.
WHY RUBY IS ROLLING IN IT AFTER CHELTENHAM
Jump jockeys are the poor relations of racing, although Tony McCoy, who has a multimillion-pound contract to ride for top Irish owner JP McManus, and Ruby Walsh, who rides for the biggest stables in Ireland and England without a contract, are starting to right the financial imbalance with the stars of the Flat. By winning the Gold Cup (£270,798), the World Hurdle (£148,226) and the Champion Chase (£182,432), Walsh earned the horses’ owners more than £600,000 in prize money. In total, the Irish champion netted £817,933 from seven winning rides. His share would be 10%. On top of that, Walsh would earn a statutory fee of £120 to £150 for every ride at the Festival and bonuses at the discretion of grateful owners.
Source:the times