Words, words, words!

Ruby Walsh used several thousand words in a recent radio interview. All of them made perfect sense.

Some were funny. Sir Anthony McCoy ‘didn’t earn his knighthood for his personality’, for example.

There was no malice, nor was it a gag. Just a relaxed aside to raise a smile from someone who knows.

Mr Walsh has an old-fashioned habit. He listens carefully to each question, then tries to answer it in full, in detail, with nuance, on the basis that the person asking actually wants to know.

Two years after retiring, how was his fitness?

‘I’m not a patch on what I was. I still ride out three or four mornings a week. I was riding last week at Naas racecourse. After one bit of work, after two miles I was glad to pull up. The actual fitness and muscle tone - no, I’ve lost a considerable amount over the last two years’.

What about food? He loves it, he says, but still doesn’t eat that much - old habits. He loves an evening in a restaurant with his wife Gillian and a bottle of wine. ‘I’m not a great cook’, he adds. ‘I can make dinner. Or, probably, reheat dinner’.

He was asked when he realised he had talent as a jockey. Ruby didn't like the word.

‘I don’t think I ever realised I had talent. I wanted to do it. I wasn’t afraid of working. I got opportunities and I started riding winners, but I don’t think I ever sat down and thought I can do this. That thought never crossed my mind, not even until the day I retired. My mindset was I rode a winner today, where’s the next one coming from? It was never - sure, I’m good enough for this’.

‘You must have always been good at it’, he was prompted.

‘Was I? Look, I was always told that self-praise is no praise. Let somebody else judge me’.

In his career the biggest obstacle wasn’t a fence, it was injuries. ‘It was nothing to do with physical pain. Break your leg or dislocate your hip or smash whatever. The pain goes away - it goes away quite quickly. Paramedics, doctors, painkillers. But to go home and watch the sport carrying on without you, and watch the horses that won without you. It’s the hardest part. And you are wondering - will people still want me when I come back?’

One question in particular stumped the jockey. He was asked what his legacy will be.

The brow furrowed and why not? It’s one of those questions easy to ask and tough to answer, especially for someone with half his life left to live. Finally Ruby escaped.

‘What is legacy? I never googled it’.

Although he claims that others see him as ‘grumpy’, he provides no evidence. He doesn’t sentimentalise and, in consequence, is very moving when he talks about his father, 11 times amateur champion, Ted. They still speak three times a day.

Anyone tired of platitudes and virtue-signalling who has forty five minutes to spare might do worse than listen to Ruby Walsh. The interview can be found here:

https://www.rte.ie/sport/racing/2021/0510/1220840-we-become-heroes-ruby-walsh-on-fulfilling-his-dream/