Ruby Walsh

Ruby Walsh (born Rupert Walsh on 1979-05-14 in Kill, County Kildare, Ireland) is the reigning Irish National Hunt champion jockey. He is the second child, and eldest son, of former champion amateur jockey Ted Walsh and his wife Helen.

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Showing talent from an early age, Walsh won the Irish amateur title twice, in 1996/7 (aged 18) and 1997/8, before turning professional. He won the English Grand National in 2000 at his first attempt, aged 20, on Papillon, a horse trained by his father. Father and son then went on to win the Irish Grand National with Commanche Court the same year. In the 2004/5 season Walsh won three of the four Nationals: the Irish on the 2006 Grand National winner, Numbersixvalverde, the Welsh on subsequent 2007 Grand National winner Silver Birch, and the English on Hedgehunter. He rode Cornish Rebel in the Scottish, but was beaten a short head by Joe's Edge. However, his earlier success in that race on Take Control in 2002 makes him the only jockey currently riding to have won all four Nationals.Ruby normally rides for Champion Trainer Paul Nicholls.

To date Walsh has ridden over fourteen hundred winners including seventeen winners at the Cheltenham Festival since his first win in 1998 on Alexander Banquet, including the 2004 Queen Mother Champion Chase on Azertyuiop, the 2007 Cheltenham Gold Cup on the favourite, Kauto Star and a second Queen Mother success in 2008 on the brilliant five-year-old Master Minded. He also won both the 2006 Tingle Creek Chase and the King George VI Chase on Kauto Star. He repeated the King George feat, again on Kauto Star, in 2007, just days after returning from injury. He won the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup in 2003 on Strong Flow, and the Whitbread Gold Cup twice, in 2001 and 2003 (the latter when it was run as the Attheraces Gold Cup), both times on Ad Hoc. In 2007, Walsh won the inaugural British Horseracing Board Jockeys' Order of Merit award.

;Cheltenham Festival winners:

1998 Champion Bumper Alexander Banquet
2002 Mildmay of Flete Handicap Chase Blowing Wind
2003 Arkle Challenge Trophy Azertyuiop
2004 Queen Mother Champion Chase Azertyuiop
2004 Grand Annual Handicap Chase St Pirran
2004 County Hurdle Sporazene
2005 Champion Bumper Missed That
2005 Daily Telegraph Chase Thisthatandtother
2006 Supreme Novices' Hurdle Noland
2006 William Hill Trophy Handicap Chase Dun Doire
2006 County Hurdle Desert Quest
2007 Royal & SunAlliance Chase Denman
2007 Ryanair Chase Taranis
2007 Cheltenham Gold Cup Kauto Star
2008 Queen Mother Champion Chase Master Minded
2008 Ballymore Properties Novices' Hurdle Fiveforthree
2008 Triumph Hurdle Celestial Halo

He was leading jockey at the Festival in 2004, 2006 and 2008.

Walsh has won the Irish jump jockeys' title on six occasions to date: 1998/99 (his debut season as a professional), 2000/01, 2004/05, 2005/06, 2006/07 and 2007/08.

Injuries

Like many jump jockeys, Walsh has suffered a number of serious injuries, the worst of which was a broken leg sustained in 1999 at Pardubice in Czechoslovakia, a course he was visiting in order to compete in the famous Great Pardubice Steeplechase. He later broke the same leg while schooling a horse and was out of action for a total of five months that season, but recovered in time to partner Papillon to win his first Grand National.

Walsh has also fractured his wrist twice, dislocated one hip and fractured the other, cracked his elbow, dislocated both shoulders and suffered cracked and badly bruised vertebrae.

Present

Walsh's recent dominance of the jockeys' championship in Ireland is all the more remarkable given that he has a unique riding arrangement with two powerful stables, one on either side of the Irish Sea. Based in Calverstown, County Kildare, where he lives with his wife Gillian, he rides predominantly for Willie Mullins in Ireland, and also spends a substantial proportion of his time riding in England for Somerset-based champion trainer Paul Nicholls, the trainer of Kauto Star. He also takes the occasional ride for his father, Ted and a variety of other, mainly Irish, trainers.

In January 2007, Walsh achieved the fastest ever century of winners in Irish jumps racing history aboard Bluestone Lad at Gowran Park. He ended the 2006/07 season with a combined total in Ireland and the UK of 198 winners, higher than any other jockey from either country that year. (This total was later increased to 200 on the disqualification of two horses for positive tests to banned substances. In both instances, Walsh had ridden the subsequently-promoted runners-up.) He repeated this feat in 2007/08, riding his 200th winner on Andreas at Sandown on his penultimate ride of the season. He rode his 1,000th Irish winner, Rare Article, at Sligo in May 2008.