RUBY
Festival highlights (anti- clockwise from above): Kauto Star (2009), after Faugheen’s Champion Hurdle (2015), Hurricane Fly (2011), Big Buck’s (2009) and Azertyuiop (2004)
RUBY
was arguably the finest single moment of Walsh’s career and brought his tally for the week to a magnificent seven, including a repeat of his 2008 Champion Chase win on the brilliant Master Minded. At the 2009 Festival, Walsh victories for Big Buck’s for Nicholls in the Stayers’ Hurdle, and the first of six on Quevega for Mullins in the Mares’ Hurdle. In 2011 he won the Unibet Champion Hurdle on Hurricane Fly, who regained the title in 2013. Further Champion Hurdle glory followed with Faugheen (2015) and Annie Power (2016), one of a record-equalling seven winners at the fixture, all supplied by Mullins. He broke fresh ground in 2017 by becoming the first jockey to ride four winners on a single Festival card. The Mullins-trained quartet comprised Yorkhill in the Marsh Novices’ Chase, Un De Sceaux in the Ryanair Chase, Nichols Canyon in the Stayers’ Hurdle and inaugurated two significant sequences, the first of four
Let’s Dance in the National Hunt Breeders Supported By Tattersalls Mares Novices’ Hurdle. Two years earlier he had come agonisingly close to a four-timer on the opening day of the meeting. After partnering Douvan in the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’, Un De Sceaux in the Racing Post Arkle Chase and Faugheen in the Stan James Champion Hurdle, he was clear on odds-on favourite Annie Power when she took a dramatic fall at the last flight in the Mares’ Hurdle. That was a rare moment of Festival heartache for Walsh, who graced the Cheltenham stage with distinction for two decades. The big-race wins will live long in the memory, but for a snapshot of his unique talent there is perhaps no better example than the 2011 Randox Health County Hurdle, in which he brought Final Approach with a relentless late run, passing about 15 horses from the final flight, to defeat the Sir Anthony McCoy-ridden Get Me Out Of Here by a nose.
occasion, acute tactical awareness, raw strength and a rare finesse. While Walsh won the Champion Bumper for Mullins again on Missed That in 2005 he had achieved the majority of his Festival victories through the first third of his career on British- trained horses. Azertyuiop, on whom he won the Racing Post Arkle in 2003, gave him a first Festival showpiece triumph when landing the Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase the following year, scoring with spectacular ease after the exit of the Irish-trained favourite Moscow Flyer four out. Walsh’s association with Azertyuiop’s trainer Paul Nicholls provided many of the decade’s
highlights. His first Cheltenham Gold Cup victory on Kauto Star in 2007 was achieved in fairly straightforward fashion at odds of 5-4, although its significance was enhanced through the landing of the Betfair Million bonus, and as a culmination of an unbeaten six-race campaign over an impressive range of distances. The following year Walsh came out second-best in one of the most memorable Gold Cup clashes in history as Kauto Star’s stablemate Denman delivered a devastating performance under Sam Thomas. Spectacular redemption came in 2009 when Kauto Star did what no horse had ever done before in reclaiming the Gold Cup crown. His 13-length defeat of Denman
March 2020 The Festival 35
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs