After so many well-timed runs down the years, the outstanding rider judged the final act to perfection too and went out at the top on his own terms
The end came suddenly, as it so often does for a jump jockey. But while so many of his weighing-room colleagues simply wake up one morning and decide that they can’t face it any more or get the news from a specialist that they can’t risk another fall, Ruby Walsh went out at the top with a Grade One winner, and on his own terms. After so many well-timed runs down the years, the final act was judged to perfection too.
In a golden generation of National Hunt riders, Walsh was transcendent. Tony McCoy was the Iron Man, astonishingly tough and prolific, while Paul Carberry was a peerless horseman. Walsh, though, had it all: a matchless combination of the physical and mental attributes that a big-race jockey requires.
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