Greatest Jockeys: Ruby Walsh

Jockey

Ruby Walsh

Irish Jockeys’ championships

1998/99, 2000/01, 2004/05 to 2009/10, 2013/14 to 2016/17 (12 in total)

Associated trainers

Willie Mullins, Paul Nicholls, Ted Walsh

Notable owners

Clive Smith, John Hales, Paul Barber, Mrs Susannah Ricci, The Stewart Family

Selection of major wins

Cheltenham Gold Cup – Kauto Star (2009, 2011)

Grand National – Papillon (2000), Hedgehunter (2005)

Irish Grand National – Commanche Court (2000), Numbersixvalverde (2005), Burrows Saint (2019)

Champion Hurdle – Hurricane Fly (2011, 2013), Faugheen (2015), Annie Power (2016)

Queen Mother Champion Chase – Azertyuiop (2004), Master Minded (2008, 2009)                    

Stayers’ Hurdle– Big Buck’s (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012), Nichols Canyon (2017)

King George VI Chase – Kauto Star (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011)

Irish Gold Cup – Quel Esprit (2012), Bellshill (2019)

Irish Champion Hurdle – Brave Inca (2009), Hurricane Fly (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015), Faugheen (2016)

Punchestown Gold Cup – Imperial Call (1999), Commanche Court (2000), Neptune Collonges (2007, 2008), Boston Bob (2014), Kemboy (2019)

Galway Plate – Moscow Express (1999), Oslot (2008)

Galway Hurdle – Clondaw Warrior (2016)

Grande Course de Haies d’Auteuil – Thousand Stars (2011, 2012)

Nakayama Grand Jump – Blackstairmountain (2013)

Other notable horses:

Denman - Challow Novices' Hurdle (2006), Royal Sunalliance Chase (2007), Lexus Chase (2007), Hennessy Gold Cup (2009)

Quevega - Mares' Hurdle (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014), World Series Hurdle (2011, 2012, 2013)

Un de Sceaux - Irish Arkle (2015), Arkle (2015), Ryanair Novice Chase (2015), Clarence House Chase (2016, 2017), Tingle Creek (2016), Ryanair Chase (2017)

Vautour - Deloitte Novice Hurdle (2014), Supreme Novices' Hurdle (2014), Champion Novice Hurdle (2014), JLT Novices' Chase (2015), Ryanair Chase (2016)

Douvan - Supreme Novices' Hurdle (2015), Champion Novice Hurdle (2015), Irish Arkle (2016), Arkle (2016), Ryanair Novice Chase (2016), Paddy Power Cashcard Chase (2016)

Profile

Ruby Walsh, born in Kildare in May 1979, seemed destined for a career in racing as the son of the 11-time champion amateur jockey-turned-trainer Ted Walsh. Ruby Walsh rode his first winner aboard Siren Song for his father at the age of 16, and the first of 12 jockeys’ championships was already in the bag when he introduced himself to an even wider audience with Papillon’s Grand National success in 2000. Despite suffering from a catalogue of injuries, Walsh’s career had yielded almost 3,000 winners worldwide when he dramatically announced his immediate retirement after guiding Kemboy to victory at Punchestown, securing a 212^th Grade 1 just shy of his 40th birthday.

1990s

Competing as an amateur, a fresh-faced Ruby Walsh opened his account riding Siren Song - trained by his father Ted – in an 18-runner bumper at Gowran Park in July 1995, and the combination followed up at the Galway Festival three weeks later. Success aboard Young Fenora at Leopardstown in November was his first for Willie Mullins, and Walsh became champion amateur in 1996/97, repeating the feat in 1997/98, his 41 domestic victories supplemented by a couple of high-profile ones across the Irish Sea aboard Major Jamie in the valuable William Hill Handicap Hurdle at Sandown and for Mullins on Alexander Banquet in the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham.

With 95 winners during the 1998/99 campaign, Walsh claimed a first jockeys’ championship, landing back-to-back Grade 1 victories at Fairyhouse’s December meeting – Alexander Banquet’s success in the Royal Bond Novice Hurdle was followed just 30 minutes later by Promalee’s in the Drinmore Novice Chase. Rince Ri was another of the season’s best novice chasers, and Walsh was aboard when he beat Promalee to win the Power Gold Cup at the same venue. A fourth Grade 1 of the season would follow at the Punchestown Festival thanks to the 1996 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Imperial Call, who rolled back the years to beat Florida Pearl. Walsh would even add the most prestigious prize in Irish summer jumps racing to his tally when Moscow Express dug deep to land the Galway Plate, but his title defence was in tatters after breaking a shin when colliding with a running rail in a race at Pardubice in the Czech Republic in early October, which left him out of action for more than five months. However, the 1999/2000 season would end on a high note. Within the space of four weeks, the Walshes would complete the Grand National/Irish Grand National double thanks to Papillon, who landed a race-day gamble at Aintree, and Commanche Court, a novice chaser at the time who stayed on strongly at Fairyhouse and followed up in an eventful Punchestown Gold Cup little more than a week later.

2000s 

Walsh suffered more injury woe during the 2000/01 campaign, missing four weeks with a broken wrist in the autumn, but he still managed to regain the jockeys’ title in a season affected by the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. He also joined forces with Paul Nicholls – who would become a significant ally later in the decade – to land the Melling Chase on Fadalko in April and the Whitbread Gold Cup aboard Ad Hoc. 

Walsh was by now picking up plenty of ‘outside’ rides on his trips across the Irish Sea, completing a big-priced treble riding for Philip Hobbs, Ian Williams and Hughie Morrison at Ayr’s Scottish National meeting, and would even assist Martin Pipe in his quest for yet another trainers’ championship in the spring of 2002. Walsh won the Mildmay of Fleet at the Cheltenham Festival aboard Blowing Wind, who stayed on strongly to nab his well-supported stable companion Lady Cricket, and also struck aboard Ilnamar in the Aintree Hurdle.

At Ayr, Take Control, also trained by Pipe, would get up in the final 50 yards to snatch the Scottish National away from the Paul Nicholls-trained Shotgun Willy, providing a big-race winner for Walsh, who had been brought down when going as well as anything aboard Ad Hoc in the Grand National a fortnight earlier. That big-race success formed part of a four-timer for Walsh on the day, the other three all trained by Nicholls, and another productive April concluded with a couple of Grade 1 victories at Punchestown, Davenport Milenium winning twice within the space of 48 hours.

By the autumn of 2002, Walsh and Nicholls had agreed a more formal riding arrangement, the partnership hitting the ground running as Azertyuiop made an impressive start as a novice chaser en route to Arkle success in the spring, whilst Cenkos would win the Tingle Creek. Despite being sent off favourite, Shotgun Willy ran no sort of race in the Grand National, but Walsh’s other three mounts on the big day were all winning ones, and Ad Hoc would land a second ‘Whitbread’ before the end of the season.

With Walsh’s help, Nicholls was by now putting down a sustained challenge to Pipe’s hold on the British trainers’ title. Strong Flow, still technically a novice, ran away with the 2003 Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury, and Walsh, who was dividing his time between England and Ireland, quickly followed up in Grade 1 company back on home soil a day later, winning the Drinmore on Nil Desperandum.

Azertyuiop was the Nicholls/Walsh standard-bearer at the 2004 Cheltenham Festival and took full advantage of Moscow Flyer’s non-completion to win the Champion Chase, a double aboard St Pirran and Sporazene on the final day of the meeting sealing the top trainer/jockey honours for the week. Walsh would be forced to sit out the Grand National having broken his wrist in a fall the previous day, but was back in time for Punchestown, where he would ride four winners for Willie Mullins.

Walsh’s dominance of the jockeys’ championship in Ireland for the remainder of the noughties – he would win six straight titles after regaining his crown in 2004/05 – was all the more remarkable given how he was splitting his riding duties. Azertyuiop’s Haldon Gold Cup victory would prove the first of several big-race wins that Walsh would enjoy in Britain that season, culminating with Hedgehunter’s dominant display in the Grand National.

Walsh already had a couple of Nationals in the bag before heading to Liverpool in April as Numbersixvalverde was successful at Fairyhouse 12 days earlier and Silver Birch had taken the Welsh version, though others would be on board when that pair won the 2006 and 2007 renewals of the Grand National.

Walsh went very close to completing the set of Nationals at Ayr in 2005, the quirky Cornish Rebel narrowly beaten in the Scottish National. This was also the season in which Walsh would begin his partnership with Kauto Star, the best horse he would ride in his career. Immediately installed as favourite for the Arkle after making a sparkling British debut at Newbury in December, Kauto Star’s next outing proved more troublesome. He was clear of his sole remaining rival when falling at the second-last, but was subsequently remounted by Walsh and only narrowly failed to get up. However, Kauto Star was later found to have sustained a small fracture, his novice chase season brought to a premature end.

The following season was one where Walsh would spend a couple spells on the sidelines with injuries, missing Kauto Star’s first Tingle Creek win, though 2006 did begin with a bang, Denman confirming early promise to bag the rescheduled Challow Hurdle at Cheltenham. However, Denman would come off second best to Nicanor in the Royal & SunAlliance Novices’ Hurdle at a Festival where Walsh would ride three winners, including Noland, who came from the clouds to win the Supreme. Walsh’s partnership with the versatile mare Asian Maze led to Grade 1 success at both Aintree and Punchestown in April.

Kauto Star proved the undoubted equine star of the 2006/07 season, putting together an unbeaten six-race campaign that started in the Old Roan at Aintree and took in Haydock (Betfair Chase), Sandown (a second Tingle Creek), Kempton (the first of five King George wins) and Newbury (AON Chase) en route to the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Denman made no mistake on a second trip to the Festival, justifying favouritism in the Royal Sunalliance Chase, whilst another Nicholls inmate, Neptune Collonges, would take the Punchestown Gold Cup, ensuring that Walsh would have some difficult decisions to make with the trio all set to contest the top events in the staying chase division for several years to come.

There was a genuine feeling of anticipation in the months leading up to the 2008 Cheltenham Festival, and in particular the Gold Cup. Walsh confirmed himself firmly in the camp of the reigning champion Kauto Star, who had registered a second King George success earlier in the campaign. Master Minded’s dominant performance in the Champion Chase came a day later than originally scheduled as high winds had forced the cancellation of Wednesday’s racing, whetting the appetite for another bumper card on the Friday, and the main event didn’t disappoint, though it was Denman, ridden by Sam Thomas, who came out on top in a compelling battle. Walsh would find consolation in the victories on Fiveforthree (Ballymore) and Celestial Halo (Triumph) earlier on the card.

The summer of 2008 yielded another Galway Plate thanks to the well-backed Oslot, while Nicholls also won the Munster National with Dear Villez and the JNwine.com Champion Chase with Kauto Star. However, Walsh’s season would soon be interrupted, suffering a ruptured spleen when kicked by another horse having fallen from Pride Of Dulcote at Cheltenham’s Open meeting. Remarkably, he was back riding less than four weeks later, certainly in time for another of Kauto Star’s King George victories, and he would land a record winning haul of seven at the Cheltenham Festival in March, a feat he would repeat in 2016.

At the 2009 Cheltenham Festival Quevega would win a first Mares’ Hurdle and Big Buck’s a first Stayers’ Hurdle – they would go on to dominate the division – while Master Minded and Kauto Star were also successful for Walsh. The rider would go on to register another four Grade 1 victories at Punchestown, including on Hurricane Fly, who had been forced to miss the Supreme after meeting with a setback.

As the decade drew to a close, racing fans were treated to some very special performances. Walsh guided Denman to a second Hennessy, achieved under a welter burden, though in terms of pure brilliance nothing could surpass Kauto Star’s stunning 36-length success in the 2009 King George, the best performance of his stellar career.

However, the 2009/10 season would end on a sour note for Walsh, crashing to the floor when Celestial Halo dived at the second-last when going well in the Aintree Hurdle, a broken arm bringing a premature conclusion to his campaign.

2010s

After spending four months on the sidelines, Walsh would face a similar period out of action after an afternoon of mixed fortunes at Down Royal in November. Having steered Kauto Star and The Nightingale to big-race wins, he would end the day in a Belfast hospital after suffering a double leg break from a fall on Corrick Bridge. Walsh returned in early March and had a day to remember on the first day of the 2011 Cheltenham Festival. Al Ferof stayed on strongly to win the Supreme, Quevega retained her Mares’ Hurdle crown, and the highlight was clearly when Hurricane Fly justified favouritism to give both jockey and trainer (Mullins) a first victory in the Champion Hurdle. Walsh would end the Festival with five winners, Final Approach’s County Hurdle success achieved by the narrowest of margins.

Kauto Star confirmed his position as one of National Hunt racing’s all-time greats when bouncing back to form in the autumn of 2011, making all in the Betfair Chase and confirming his superiority over the reigning Gold Cup winner Long Run in the King George five weeks later, gaining a scarcely-believable fifth win in the race. The Cheltenham Festival would be Kauto Star’s swansong, pulled up before halfway after an interrupted build-up, and it would prove an underwhelming week generally for Walsh, the only occasion between 2008 and 2017 that he would fail to take top jockey honours.

Hurricane Fly was not at his best on the opening day, having to settle for third in the Champion Hurdle, but he quickly got back on track at Punchestown, whilst the remarkable Quevega would once again prove successful when mixing it with the ‘boys’, winning a third straight World Series Hurdle.

Walsh and Thousand Stars repeated the previous year’s success in the Grande Course de Haies d’Auteuil (French Champion Hurdle) in June 2012 and Silviniaco Conti made a seemless step out of novice company, nabbing the Charlie Hall and Betfair Chase within a three-week period in November. Walsh would repeat his 2011 opening day treble at the 2013 Cheltenham Festival, Champagne Fever getting the ball rolling in the Supreme before Hurricane Fly regained his Champion Hurdle crown and Quevega made no mistake in the Mares’ Hurdle.

In a sign of things to come, all four of Walsh’s victories – Briar Hill took the Champion Bumper – were for Willie Mullins, and Zarkandar’s Aintree Hurdle victory was the last big-race winner Walsh would ride for Nicholls before stepping down as number one jockey at Ditcheat. Another milestone would be achieved just nine days later as Mullins sent out Blackstairmountain to became the first European-trained horse to win the Nakayama Grand Jump in Japan.

With his attentions now firmly in Ireland, Walsh’s trips over to Britain were becoming more scarce, though he did partner the rising star Annie Power to success in Ascot’s Coral Hurdle in November 2013, and she would remain unbeaten until her Cheltenham Festival appointment the following spring. Sporting the same silks of Mrs Susannah Ricci, Vautour and Faugheen were also Cheltenham-bound, and would win the Supreme and Neptune Novices’ Hurdles respectively, though Annie Power lost out to More Of That in the Stayers’ Hurdle.

The Walsh/Mullins juggernaut continued to steamroll its way through the Irish calendar, Hurricane Fly showing that he was still a big player by winning the Morgiana and Ryanair Hurdles, whilst Douvan and Un de Sceaux found themselves at the head of the two-mile novice ranks over hurdles and fences respectively, cementing those positions with success in the first two races of the 2015 Cheltenham Festival. Faugheen landed the odds to give Walsh a third Champion Hurdle in five years, with all eyes now on Annie Power as she attempted to complete a four-timer for trainer/jockey in the Mares’ Hurdle. The race was at her mercy when she dramatically clipped the final flight and came down.

Vautour was an impressive winner of JLT Novices’ Chase, and would make it three Festival wins when taking the following year’s Ryanair Chase, but tragically suffered a fatal broken leg in a freak injury at home later in 2016.

Walsh’s relationship with the Grand National was becoming an increasingly strained one – he would be absent for yet another renewal in the 2015/16 season having sustained a broken wrist after back-to-back falls on Vautour and Blood Cotil the previous day. However, he had already won a ‘Grand National’ in August, this one the Australian version aboard Bashboy, and would add the American version thanks to Rawnaq a year later. Faugheen was unable to defend his Cheltenham crown, but Annie Power proved a most capable deputy, making it third time lucky at the Festival, one of seven winners Walsh would ride during the week, though Annie Power wouldn’t be racing for much longer, already in foal when retired a year later having missing the entire 2016/17 campaign through injury.

Clondaw Warrior’s victory in the 2016 Galway Hurdle – Walsh’s first in the race - carried added significance as the horse was part-owned by his wife Gillian in a syndicate which also included his great friend and former jockey David Casey’s wife.

Without the presence of Quevega and Annie Power, Limini assumed the role as the leading contender for the major mares’ events, and she would go off favourite for the Mares’ Hurdle having beaten former stablemate Apple’s Jade in her prep race at Punchestown. Apple’s Jade, who had been the highest-profile horse removed from Mullins by Gigginstown House Stud, would gain her revenge at Cheltenham in a three-way battle involving another Mullins inmate, Vroum Vroum Mag.

Worse still was to come on the following day as Douvan’s aura of invincibity slipped in the Champion Chase, Walsh reaching the halfway point of the Festival without a single winner on the board. However, that was to change on the Thursday as all three Grade 1 events went his way, the enigmatic Yorkhill getting the ball rolling in the JLT Novices’ Chase before Un de Sceaux and Nichols Canyon won the Ryanair Chase and Stayers’ Hurdle respectively. With the domestic battle to be champion trainer going down to the wire, the Mullins battalions were trained on Fairyhouse and Punchestown as opposed to Aintree, and Bapaume’s success in the Champion Four-Year-Old Hurdle on the final day of the season helped to repel the challenge of Gordon Elliott.

In November 2017 Walsh broke his right leg in a fall at Punchestown and did not return until just before the Cheltenham Festival, where an already interrupted campaign came to a swift conclusion, aggravating that injury when Al Boum Photo (who would win the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2019 and 2020) departed at the second-last in the RSA Chase. A day earlier, the victories of Footpad and Benie Des Dieux had helped Walsh to become the winningmost jockey in the Festival’s history, finishing his career with a total of 59 when Klassical Dream won the Supreme the following year.

What turned out to be Walsh’s final season in the saddle started at the Galway Festival, picking up a further  12 Grade 1s as well as a third Irish Grand National aboard Burrows Saint before announcing his retirement with immediate effect having guided Kemboy to success in the Punchestown Gold Cup in May 2019.