English Grand National Fan Blog

Over recent years it has been rare for jockeys to win more than one Grand National. Winning that race is considered to be one of the pinnacle achievements in national hunt racing, but it tends to be something that most jockeys achieve only once. One jockey who has gone against the trend is Ruby Walsh who won the race both in 2000 and in 2005.
In 2000 he rode Papillon, trained by Ted Walsh and owned by Mrs J. Maxwell Moran and in 2005 he rode Hedgehunter, trained by Willie Mullins and owned by Trevor Hemmings. They came in at 10/1 and 7/1 respectively and had both been favourites. That in itself is quite remarkable as favourites rarely win the Grand National. Apart from those wins, only seven favourites or joint favourites have won the race since 1960.

Ruby Walsh is an Irish jockey who comes from County Kildare. When he won his first Grand National he was only 20 years old. In the same year he won the Irish Grand National too. He followed up his Grand National win in 2005 by winning the Welsh, the Scottish and the Irish Grand Nationals. Walsh has ridden 1,400 winners and 25 of those have been at the Cheltenham Festival and hence has always been a Cheltenham betting favourite.
He regularly rides for two stables, one each side or the Irish Channel. The Irish stable is in Calverstown, County Kildare and belongs to Willie Mullins, and the English one is Paul Nichols’ in Somerset. For Nichols he has ridden both of the famous duo, Kuato Star and Denman, to several victories.

He has experienced more than his fair share of injuries during his career to date. These include in chronological order a broken leg, a second break of the same leg, a fractured wrist, another fractured wrist, a dislocated hip, a fracture of his other hip, a cracked his elbow, a dislocation of both shoulders, a cracked vertebra, an emergency removal of the spleen, a fractured left ankle, and a broken left arm, in fact it was broken in two places. Such are the dangers of being a jump jockey.

Ruby Walsh has over 500 winners to date and he is set to continue to only increase his status in the future. He is viewed very much as a hero of jump racing by all who are involved in the sport.