You know you’ve made it when you are recognisable by a single name.
Messi, Neymar, Agassi, Tiger, Gooch.
And Ruby.
There is no other sportstar you could imagine when the name Ruby comes across the tannoy at the racetrack, be it Gowran Park in a frosty January, or Cheltenham in high March.
The Kildare native is now the most highly-rated jockey around after the retirement of AP McCoy earlier this year, and the multiple Champion Jockey admits that the Antrim native is missed from the sport.
McCoy and Walsh might be friends, but the 36-year-old admits that McCoy was driven by different motivations in his career.
Speaking to Paul Kimmage in today’s Sunday Independent, Walsh, reveals that Walsh preferred to make a play for the big days rather than chase records and ride every single day of the week in search of winners,
“For him, it was seven days a week but I preferred being fresher and ready for the bigger days at the end of it.
“I grew up watching the big races on Grandstand on Saturdays and that’s what I wanted to do — to ride the big winners on the big days. And that’s what I chased — the good horses. AP was obsessed by numbers.”
McCoy is widely regarded as one of the best jockeys of all time and Walsh pays tribute to his manic competitive streak by recalling a meeting between the Irishman and the Channel 4 racing commentator Emma Spencer
“We were having dinner with Emma Spencer who was a very good tennis player in her youth, and he challenged her to a match — said he would beat her before they both turned 45.
“I guarantee you that he will get lessons off whoever it takes to win that match. It doesn’t matter if he’s having a kickaround with the kids — he has to win.”
