Next week’s Cheltenham Festival has already been a big success for one man. Mark Walsh, among the most highly regarded jump jockeys in Ireland, has inherited a string of big-name rides as a result of Barry Geraghty’s broken ribs and has spent this week making the acquaintance of British trainers who, while aware of his talent, might previously have had trouble picking him out of a lineup.
On Thursday, he was at Alan King’s yard in Wiltshire, just across the M4 from Lambourn, schooling horses including Yanworth, the 3-1 favourite for Tuesday’s Champion Hurdle. “It all went very well,” said King, who also legged-up the 30-year-old on Uxizandre and Winter Escape. “It was the first time I’ve met him. He seems smashing, a good lad. I’m very happy with the way things went.”
Walsh is also now known to the perennial British champion trainer, Paul Nicholls, having been to his Ditcheat yard in Somerset early this week to school four horses owned by his main employer, JP McManus. “He’s a really nice lad,” said Nicholls, who expects Walsh to ride Movewiththetimes, Le Prezien and Bouvreuil. “I was impressed with the way he rode.”
In Ireland, Walsh has won the Gold Cup and a stack of other big races among a career tally of more than 400 successes, his mounts amassing more than £3m in prize money. But his job with McManus has rarely required him to travel over to Britain, where his number of wins stands at three, the most significant of which was a handicap hurdle at Aintree 13 years ago. He has had a winner at Cheltenham but not during the Festival.
In the circumstances, it is a significant act of loyalty and faith on the part of McManus to entrust so many quality rides to Geraghty’s deputy. Walsh is also expected to be aboard More Of That in the Gold Cup, Jezki in the Stayers’ Hurdle, Cantlow in the cross-country race and Landofhopeandglory in the Triumph. Still, if there are any nerves fluttering in the rider’s stomach, Nicholls and King did not detect them.
“You haven’t seen a lot of him in England because Barry’s always been fit when we were sending horses over,” said Frank Berry, racing manager to McManus. “But he’s been doing the job well at home. He’s having a great season in Ireland. He’s had a lot of experience, including at Cheltenham. He’s ridden in Triumphs and Champion Hurdles, it’s just that the horses weren’t good enough on the day.”
Press-room chatter about Walsh at Wincanton on Thursday ranged from the respectful (“Like all the best Irish jockeys, he really knows how to read a race”) to the outlandish. “They love him in Ireland,” one hack opined. “To hear them, you’d think he was Lester Piggott rolled up with Godzilla.” Though Piggott rarely rode over jumps and Godzilla may have had trouble making the weight.
But the point is well made about Walsh’s reputation. “He’s a fine rider,” said Ted Walsh, no relation, a Grand National-winning trainer based in County Kildare and a veteran TV analyst. “Everyone highly respects him, in Ireland anyway. He has a good racing brain, he’d never abuse a horse but he’s strong, he rides with a good length of leg. He’s got most things you’d want in a jockey. Any time I could get him, I’d love to have him but he’s hard to get nowadays.”
That wasn’t always true. A decade ago, Walsh ended his fifth season with just four wins at a strike rate of 2%. Making ends meet must have been a struggle but, importantly, he already had a link to McManus, who supplied all four of those wins.
“It’s a very closed shop here,” Ted Walsh explained, reflecting on how difficult it can be for a rider without a connection to one of the top yards. “But full credit to him, he didn’t throw the towel in. It’s easy enough to keep going when you’re riding winners. It’s the fella who can keep going through a lean spell, that’s the real sign of a man.”
Friday's tips by Chris Cook
Ayr: 2.10 Left Back 2.45 Vertigo 3.20 Tomahawk Wood 3.55 Baltimore Buzz 4.30 Marlee Massie 5.00 Gold Opera 5.35 Another Mattie
Leicester: 2.20 Bivouac 2.55 Ballinvarrig 3.30 Barton Rose 4.05 Elkstone 4.40 Doeslessthanme 5.10 Glendermot
Newcastle: 5.45 Blushing Red 6.15 Forest Angel 6.45 Royal Opera House (nb) 7.15 New Abbey Angel 7.45 The Burnham Mare 8.15 Jet Setter
Sandown: 2.00 Sissinghurst 2.30 Azzerti 3.05 Ceasar Milan 3.40 Billy Bronco (nap) 4.15 Artifice Sivola 4.50 Sneaky Feeling
