Jockey

Rupert ‘Ruby’ Walsh announced his retirement from the saddle, with immediate effect, on May 1, 2019, having ridden Kemboy, trained by Willie Mullins, to victory in the Punchestown Gold Cup. Of course, Walsh had enjoyed a long, lucrative affiliation with the County Carlow handler, becoming stable jockey at Closutton on his return to his native Ireland in 2013. He said afterwards, ‘ I think I knew going out that if he won I wouldn’t ride again.’ Mullins, for his part, said, ‘Ruby was fantastic there, I’m delighted for him.’

Hailed by BBC horse racing correspondent Cornelius Lysaght as ‘a supreme horseman’, Walsh was still only 16 years old when he rode his first winner of any description, Siren Song, trained by his father Ted, in a National Hunt Flat Race at Gowran Park on July 15, 1995. He became Irish Champion Amateur Jockey in both 1996/97 and 1997/98 and, on March 18, 1998, still two months shy of his nineteenth birthday, he opened his account at the Cheltenham Festival aboard Alexander Banquet in the Weatherbys Champion Bumper.

Walsh won the Irish Jump Jockeys’ Championship for the first time in 1998/99, but it was his victory on another horse saddled by his father, Papillon, in the Grand National, on his first attempt in 2000, that first drew him to the attention of the wider racing public. Just for good measure, 16 days later he would also win the Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse on the former Triumph Hurdle winner Commanche Court, also trained by Walsh Snr., who was having just his fifth start over the larger obstacles. Indeed, Walsh would soon become a force majeure on both sides of the Irish Sea, having agreed a formal riding arrangement with Ditcheat trainer Paul Nicholls in 2002.

Walsh won Irish Jump Jockeys’ Championship again in 2001/2002 but, remarkably, granted he was splitting riding duties between Nicholls in Britain and Mullins in Ireland, he would win the title six years running between 2004/05 and 2009/10. In fact, following his decision to spend more time at home in 2013, he would win the title another four years running between 2013/14 and 2016/17, for a record 12 titles in all.

Nevertheless, immediately after his retirement, now 14-time Champion Trainer Nicholls was hugely complimentary about his erstwhile stable jockey, saying, ‘He’s been a fantastic jockey, a fantastic ambassador for the sport and he’s just a great man. He’s one of the best jockeys ever to ride for us and will always be a friend.’ Indeed, praise for Walsh was universal, befitting a jockey who, despite more than his fair share of injuries, finished his career with 2,767 winners to his name. He ranks third in the all-time list in Britain and Ireland, behind only Sir Anthony McCoy, with 4,348 career winners, and Richard Johnson, with 3,819.

For all his success elsewhere, though, from the point-of-view of the average punter, Walsh is likely to be remembered for his record-breaking exploits at the Cheltenham Festival. The aforementioned Alexander Banquet kick things off way back in 1998, but over the next two decades or so Walsh would add another 58 Festival winners, culminating with Klassical Dream, trained by Mullins, in the opening Supreme Novices’ Hurdle (a record sixth win in that race) on March 12, 2019. His final career total of 59 winners is 16 more than the second jockey on the all-time list, Barry Gergahty, with 43 winners and 28 more than the third, the otherwise indomitable McCoy, with 31 winners.

Between 2004 and 2017, Walsh won the leading jockey award at the Cheltenham Festival no fewer than 11 occasions and, on two occasions, in 2009 and 2016, rode a record seven winners over the four days. Fittingly, since 2020, his former weighing room colleagues have competed for a statuette of the great man, known as the ‘Ruby Walsh Trophy’.

Annie Power, who was retired from racing following a very impressive 18-length victory in the Aintree Hurdle in April, 2016 – which earnt her her highest-ever Timeform rating of 170+ – was an extraordinary racemare who won fifteen of her seventeen starts. She is probably best remembered for being one of just four mares, and the first since Flakey Dove in 1994, to win the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. However, her 4½-length victory over My Tent Or Yours in the 2016 renewal of the two-mile hurdling championship – for which she had been supplemented, at a cost of £20,000 to connections – was her third consecutive appearance at the Cheltenham Festival.

Bred and originally owned by Eamon Cleary, Annie Power was bought by Rich and Susannah Ricci and transferred to Willie Mullins after winning two ‘bumpers’ for her original trainer, Jim Bolger, in August, 2012. She won her first seven starts over hurdles, including the Irish Stallions EBF Mares Novice Hurdle Championship at Fairyhouse, by a very easy 12 lengths, en route to her first appearance at the Cheltenham Festival. Despite racing over a distance beyond 2 miles 4½ furlongs for the first time in her career, she was sent off 11/8 favourite for the 2014 World Hurdle, but suffered what would be her only defeat in sixteen completed starts.

The following year, Annie Power returned to the Cheltenham Festival for the OLBG Mares’ Hurdle, in which she boasted far and away the best form and was consequently sent off 1/2 favourite. A flying leap at the second-last flight took her into the lead and she was in command, with the race at her mercy, approaching the final flight. However, Annie Power took off a full stride too soon, clipped the top bar and fell; in so doing, she saved the bookmaking industry an estimated £50 million after victories for Douvan, Un De Sceaux and Faugheen – all hot favourites and, like Annie Power, all trained by Willie Mullins and ridden by Ruby Walsh – in the first three races of the day.

Following the retirement of Sir Anthony McCoy in April, 2015, Richard Johnson finally emerged from the shadow of the perennial champion jockey to claim the leading jockey title for himself in 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2017/18. Johnson is also the fifth most successful jockey in the history of the Cheltenham Festival – behind Ruby Walsh, Barry Geraghty, McCoy and Pat Taafe – with 22 winners.

His first success at what has become known as the ‘Olympics of horse racing’ came aboard Anzum, trained by David Nicholson, in the Stayers’ Hurdle in 1999, but Johnson wasted little time in completing his set of the championship races that headline each of the four days. He won the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Looks Like Trouble, trained by Noel Chance, in 2000, the Queen Mother Champion Chase on Flagship Uberalles, trained by Philip Hobbs, in 2002 and the Champion Hurdle on Rooster Booster, also trained by Hobbs, in 2003.

After riding at least one winner at five successive Cheltenham Festivals, Johnson finally drew a blank in 2005. He managed just one winner in 2006 and 2007 and was, again, winnerless in 2008 and 2009, before winning the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle on Menorah and the Centenary Novices’ Chase on Copper Bleu, both trained by Philip Hobbs, in 2010.

Although finding Festival winners harder to come by in recent years, Johnson has also won the Arkle Challenge Trophy, the Weatherbys Champion Bumper, the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase, the Pertemps Network Final and the Triumph Hurdle on Hobbs-trained horses. In 2017, he also won the Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle on Flying Tiger, trained by Nick Williams and, in 2018, the Cheltenham Gold Cup, for the second time, on Native River, trained by Colin Tizzard. After the latter success, Johnson said, “I’m speechless. He’s been a fantastic horse for me and I was lucky to pick up the ride on him.”