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’.