From the genius of Mullins to the jockeys' title – Ruby Walsh has his say

Ruby Walsh, a 12-time Irish champion jumps jockey, offers his thoughts on subjects ranging from the leading lights of Willie Mullins' stable to what it's like to work on a daily basis with the champion trainer.

Ruby on...

Ruby Walsh: talked all things racing at a Paddy Power media morningCredit: Patrick McCann

A tough autumn...

Recovery is recovery and rehab is rehab. It definitely doesn’t get any easier but I wouldn’t say it gets any harder – but there’s certain parts of your body that you have to respect. You would chance riding with a broken wrist but there was bruising around the back of my vertebrae, around my spinal canal, and the doctors wanted that bruising to go away before they let me back riding. That injury means I’ve no chance of winning the jockeys’ championship now.

The jockeys' championship...

Ruby Walsh: 'There’s not enough racing left for me to get to the numbers required to be champion.'Credit: Edward Whitaker

There’s not enough racing left for me to get to the numbers required to be champion which has probably led to me being a little more selective. I can’t be champion but Paul [Townend] can. We work in the same place and all I can do is stop him being champion jockey, but I’m not that selfish.

It’s [the jockeys' championship] fascinating but they’re all only one fall away from having no chance of winning it. If any of them gets an injury they’re out of it. The longer the three of them [Paul Townend, Rachael Blackmore and Davy Russell] can stay fit, the better that battle will become and the more interesting it’ll be for the general public, but I don’t think it’s something you can drum up as much as racing people would like as it could be a non-event come the end of Christmas.

Rachael Blackmore...

Rachael Blackmore: has solid claims at FairyhouseCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

She's a brilliant rider. You saw it on Tuesday [at Naas] and you see it every day. She’s a brilliant competitor and she’s tactically very aware. She does everything that a good jockey should do.

Missing winners…

No-one likes not riding winners but you have to realise that you’re part of the team and you have to give a little, too. Everyone has to be pulling together because if we’re all pulling against each other it goes nowhere.

The patience of Willie Mullins...

It’s a great game, play it slow. Someone said it’s frustrating, I don’t know if it’s frustrating, because good horses don’t grow on trees and you have to mind them. It’s probably different with the Flat horses in that, if you miss the Guineas or you miss the Derby, that’s the horse’s big target in his life. But with jumpers, you hope to have them for five or six years, so if the first half of the season isn’t working, you know you have the whole rest of season to look forward to and the years afterwards.

If you’re investing money in a racehorse and you’re going to pay someone like Willie Mullins to train it, surely you’d take his advice about where you should run them, as that’s part of why you’re paying him, it’s for his foresight. Willie can see the big picture and you’re a part of that.

On Mullins’ notorious late decision making...

Ruby Walsh: 'Willie doesn’t make a decision until he has to. We usually play it up in the kitchen and Patrick and David [Mullins] will be there as well.'Credit: Patrick McCann

He’s got an awful lot better. He used to be making decisions at quarter to ten in the morning, it’s usually ten past or quarter past nine these days – he’s doing it before he has his toast at the minute! That’s always been Willie and when you’re used to it you don’t expect anything different. When you’re a part of it you roll with it. Willie doesn’t make a decision until he has to. We usually play it up in the kitchen and Patrick [Mullins] and David [Casey] will be there as well and we’re just trying to place the right horses in the right races. It just happens late in Closutton.

The Grade 1 Savills Chase…

It looks a cracking race. I mean, outside of Willie’s horses, you’ve got Presenting Percy and Road To Respect, and then you have whatever Willie throws in. Willie could have a lot of horses to throw into that race – Bellshill, Al Boum Photo, Kemboy, Total Recall – as there’s not many other options for those types of horses.

Road To Respect was brilliant at Down Royal and it will be interesting to see how close Presenting Percy can get to him to see how good last year’s novices were. None of the horses have run yet but the obvious one [to ride] on ratings would be Bellshill. They all work tomorrow [Thursday] and they’ll work again on Christmas eve so we’ll see how they are.

Novice hurdlers...

I’d imagine that Blackbow and Carefully Selected will run in maidens over the Christmas. Tornado Flyer obviously did already, and I just think that meeting at Punchestown that he won at could come a bit close to Christmas, so maybe you’d wait and run him in the Grade 1 novice hurdle at Naas in January instead. That would leave Quick Grabim, Sancta Simona and Aramon – and maybe Easy Game could pull out quickly – as the novices you’d be thinking about for Leopardstown. Willie will have piles of maidens for Christmas.

Tornado Flyer has been one of the smart Mullins novice hurdlers this seasonCredit: Patrick McCann

The Champion Hurdle picture...

Laurina’s chances haven’t strengthened, more so that the others have weakened! Strictly on the Champion Hurdle from last season, Melon will only have to improve a neck, and you’d be hoping that, somewhere in there, you can find a neck.

On ratings, Laurina will have to improve – she’s 10 to 12lb shy of what’s required but she has all the potential. The races are getting scarcer and she’s going to have to start somewhere but as he [Mullins] said in the paper the other day, she wants soft ground in the going and he’ll wait for that. She’s a fine mare and I’ve ridden her work before and even Aisling O’Brien, the girl that looks after her, had her bag packed and was ready to head off to Cheltenham for the International Hurdle last week but Willie decided at 4am that he wasn’t going to run her, just before the box was due to leave the yard.

Laurina will have to improve by 10 to 12lb to be a Champion Hurdle contender, according to Ruby WalshCredit: Patrick McCann

When you look at the ground and the forecast he made the right call. It rained at Cheltenham on the day, three hours before it was supposed to, but we couldn’t have known that. She’s a very good mare.

Faugheen...

You’d imagine Faugheen will run against Apple’s Jade in the Squared Financial Christmas Hurdle. She was brilliant at Fairyhouse the last day. I rode in the race and it was end-to-end. She’ll be hard to beat but I imagine that’s where he’ll go. He tricked us into thinking that he still had enough speed for the Morgiana and he still has his old enthusiasm.

I rode him in the Champion Hurdle last year and to be fair to the horse he didn’t stop. He hadn’t the legs on Buveur D'Air or Melon and when they passed him he should have folded but he didn’t, and kept going to pass a few to finish sixth. He still has his attitude and I think stepping him up in trip will be a big help to him. Stick Supasundae in there as well and it’ll be some race.

Walsh expects Faugheen to line up in the Squared Financial Christmas HurdleCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

The King George...

I’d love to see Waiting Patiently win it for Ruth Jefferson. I think that’d be a brilliant story for racing. I thought the horse was brilliant at Ascot last season. I’ve been a huge fan of Might Bite since I rode against him in the RSA – the gallop he went and the ability he must have – but like most people I was disgusted with him at Haydock.

Will Politologue and Waiting Patiently get the trip? There’s nothing in the race that’s rock solid. Thistlecrack will have to jump better than he did at Haydock and Might Bite will need to leave that run behind. Bristol De Mai will need to back up, which he hasn’t done in the past, and there’s a question mark about most of the horses in the race, which is a bit unusual. The more you think about it, Native River looks the winner, if you’re going purely on logic.

Retirement...

I haven’t thought about it. When you're injured all you think about is the good horses you’re missing and when you’re back all you want to do is stay on the good horses. Good horses keep me going and I think Willie Mullins has a fair few of them.

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