Soon we will talk about the inspirational effect of watching Sir Anthony McCoy fall off a rubber contraption but, first, Ruby Walsh wants to explain why he is consumed by envy.
What does the king of the Cheltenham Festival have to be jealous about? This is a man who scaled peaks, pushed boundaries and commands eternal respect but, as a deep thinker, he is always looking for more. So, it transpires, two weeks absorbing events in Milano Cortina has had a profound effect.
‘You watch drones flying down the piste behind the downhill skiers,’ Walsh, animatedly, begins. ‘I’m thinking: “Why can’t we get them to keep up with horses?’ There are brilliant camera operators and broadcasters in racing.
‘Their enthusiasm and attention to detail is fantastic — they are also keen to improve coverage. But watching the action from the Winter Olympics, I was just so jealous of all the cameras and angles they had. If only we had that in racing.’
It would be easy to sit down with Walsh and indulge in all old stories, such as his alliance with the magnificent dual Gold Cup winner Kauto Star, to what he thinks will be the best idea of a winner this coming week, given his knowledge of the inner workings of the all-conquering Willie Mullins stable.
But doing that would be a waste. Walsh’s mind is always whirring and he is not afraid to look at things from a different direction, which is why he is regarded as one of sport’s best pundits — you will see it for yourself when you watch ITV’s Cheltenham coverage.
Legendary jockey Ruby Walsh is regarded as one of sport’s best pundits
Given his ability to see the minutiae, talking about the obvious with Walsh is not going to get inside his mind, so it is a question about McCoy’s relentless obsession for self-improvement that opens the floodgates to how he managed his own career and how he continues to look for more.
‘I always played rugby and rugby players, such as Ronan O’Gara, certainly had a big influence on my career,’ Walsh begins. ‘I lived with AP (when Walsh was stable jockey to Paul Nicholls) so I know what he was doing to try and learn off other sports.
‘He’d come back from Arsenal’s training ground trying to balance on some cushioned thing and kept falling off. But then I realised if he was trying to get fitter through his core, then I’d have to, too. I spent a lot of time in the sports surgery clinic in Santry working with a physio called Enda King.
‘I probably got all the way to riding at 40 years old because of the work he did with me. If you’re not looking at what the lads around you are doing, and trying to get up to their level, then you’re going to find it hard to compete. And I was in a generation where you had to compete with AP.’
Attempting to keep pace with McCoy, for many, was like having a foot race against a motorcyclist but Walsh — who retired in 2019 with 59 Festival winners — could do it; their rivalry was like Pep Guardiola against Jurgen Klopp, a symphonic meeting of styles that took jump racing to new heights.
‘I’ve always watched loads of other sports and tried to learn from them,’ the ardent Manchester United fan continues. ‘I remember David Rudisha winning 800m Olympic Gold in London 2012; I was so taken by how he how he attacked the race.
‘It was so unlike most 800m races to have someone jump and go off for his life. The fractions were so fast the first six would have won gold at the previous 10 Olympics, at the times they ran, because he went so hard. He made them all run above themselves, but he just blew the race apart.
‘Often people say to you: “Oh, making the running is the hard way”. If you’re riding the best horse, making the running isn’t the hard way at all. You’re able to go at a speed that the opposition can’t keep up with. But some sports frustrate me as well.
Walsh, who finished with 2,756 wins, lifted the lid on his rivalry with Sir AP McCoy (right)
‘You look at teams shackled by tactics and you’re thinking: “Jesus, lads! You’re on the pitch… change something!” It’s the same as riding. You get a set of instructions and, all of a sudden, the tape goes up and what you thought was going to happen doesn’t happen.
‘Then the instructions are worthless. I guess I’d be too liberal for lots of Premier League and rugby managers, as I’d be playing what’s in front of me rather than following the team plan. But you have to rely on instinct. And if you’re putting a jockey on the horse, you have to trust their instincts.’
His were impeccable, a reason why he finished with 2,756 wins, and continue to be that way. His ability to break down a race in seconds and highlight the defining incidents immediately is a reason why Ed Chamberlin, ITV’s lead presenter, likens him to Gary Neville.
‘I wouldn’t say there are pundits who’ve had a big influence on me and how I operate,’ he says. ‘I’d more look at different sports and try to get stuck into what they do differently in their coverage compared to racing, and to that extent, think how we can improve what we do in our sport.’
This is the week his sport gets to show what it is all about. There is a more competitive feel to the Festival than there has been in recent years and, as such, his excitement is acute. Walsh, 46, finds it hard to pick out one specific horse he would love to ride but he knows what matters: it is not fun.
‘You could argue sport is about participation and there’s no doubt that is very important culturally for society,’ he explains. ‘But that’s when you’re doing it for fun. When you’re doing it as a business — and racing is a business — there’s some difference between first and second.
‘Cheltenham is great but there’s some difference between walking back into the winner’s enclosure and turning left to dismount in second, third or fourth, and walking straight up the middle to number one. There’s no comparison. Second has never been anything to me.’
Perhaps now you can see why he will never rest as he continues in the pursuit of excellence.
Racing TV is the only channel broadcasting all 28 races live from the Cheltenham Festival, with coverage starting at 9.45am daily. Head to racingtv.com/join to enjoy unrivalled coverage.
