R Walsh v The Last Fence

Some of his falls read like a who's who of racing: Kauto Star, Vautour, Un De Sceaux, Djackadam (TWICE), Annie Power, Celestial Halo, Arctic Fire, Champagne Fever, Zarkandar, Silviniaco Conti, Twist Magic, Mikael D'Haguenet

Despite having fallen off some real top names he gets up and the next day will ride faugheen or whatever to victory with total confidence in a 100k race like it never happened.

I can't imagine Ruby gives a rats a$$ about all this. He has been brought up thinking he's the best and has been called so a million times.

I don't know if many will remember Bog Warrior? extremely talented but a very difficult ride....After winning on him over hurdles, Ruby gave him a peach of a ride in his first novice chase , despite jumping left at half his fences, winning by a distance. Davy Russell took the reigns and ended up on the floor 3 times.

I wonder how many he has won on that others have fallen off.
 
EC1 said:
i heard that too..what about the hurdles though?

I think its in his mind now..as pro as these guys are..they are human beings.

One thing i did notice today..in all the first 4 races Ruby was in contention at the last in every race. Basically he is facing the last fence/flight and in contention many more times per day than average jockey who may only be in that position once every couple of days..or 2 or 3 times if a top jockey.

I just wonder if its the fact its coming up very often in short periods of time with him....i don't know. He is in that in contention at last a lot of times per day compared to average though

its either that..or it is now playing on his mind
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Its playing on my mind now in every race he's winning.
 
Tanlic said:
:lol: sorry but that is absolute nonsense. Everyone raises their body at take
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I mean that Ruby nearly stands up vertically in his stirrups with knees still bent often coming to the last, virtually standing still to try let the horse do its own thing. I don't know how you really describe it because I'm not a jockey with terminology but he's half sitting half standing, the upper half of his body is in a higher position than it should be and not in your stereotypical race ride position you've shown with that illustration. If the horse is under pressure he'll almost stop all movements in the arm in an attempt to let the horse pop it. By doing this, standing up almost, he's obviously loosening the squeeze he has on a horse through his legs thus breaking communication with the horse which I can only imagine is very confusing for the animal. Buddy of mine rides out for Mouse Morris and has ridden a few pointers to win and he agrees that this must be ultra confusing for a horse, to have that taken away from the animal in the last stride or two whilst measuring up an obstacle, indecisiveness is the last thing the horse needs.

An example that comes to mind straight away, even tho the horse didn't fall was Kauto Stars 2011 Gold cup 3rd to Long Run. Approaching the last he was neck and neck with Denman, Long Run having just hit the front. Those 2 got fired into the last but Ruby done what I've just described, you can visually see Kauto lose a couple of lengths on the others & Ruby's body position get ever so slightly higher. Kauto had the intelligence to find his way to the other side but most animals aren't as classy as him. I'm not sure why he done that because on previous occasions Kauto had always been fired into the last fence. Tarla, a good mare of Ricci's was another example going back where she fell once or twice in splendid isolation when he decided to let her off to her own devices.


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I just wonder, because Ruby has had several injuries, whether one or more of these prevents him from adopting the "absolute correct position" at obstacles.
 
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Diamond Geezer said:
I just wonder, because Ruby has had several injuries, whether one or more of these prevents him from adopting the "absolute correct position" at obstacles.
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That could well be the case DG. Personally myself I think it's no coincidence that most of these last fence falls are in Ireland and mostly for Willie Mullins. The horses are generally going to be in a position at the last to challenge and would generally have a bit in hand on the others, they often come to the last cruising. Maybe his thoughts are like If this lads just pops this now I'm home & hosed and I'll just ride him out to the finish. Just don't fall kind of thing and let him get over himself. He could be doing more harm than good.

When he's been in a fight with another horse from a distance out he usually has no other option than to fire the horse into the obstacle. It's very rare you'll see the horse come to grief when ruby fires him at it. It's becoming more of a regular occurrence when the horse is coming there full of running and he leaves him to his own devices.

Davy Russell is a master at this. He see a stride a distance from an obstacle and five or six slaps down the shoulder on the strides approaching the obstacle mean himself & the horse are in perfect unison over it. He's a joy to watch in a driving finish. Before we bought our new place he lived in a housing estate four doors up from us for a few years. He is a lovely fella and very approachable and his opinion were that horses were like children in that you must tell them exactly what you want them to do. To do this you must be firm with them and that style he adopted meant the horse knew who exactly who the boss was and what exactly he wanted him to do. It's served him very well.




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Ruby is technically and tactically gifted and regarded as one of the best jockeys of all time.

What on earth are you guys talking about adopting the wrong position?

Funny how AP and Scu can't spot it but you guys can :lol:
 
If Ruby can get Faugheen round in one piece at the speed he goes at who is a shockingly bad jumper who bunny hops when not encouraged then he can make any horse jump.

We should all be slapped round the chops me included for trying to tell each other what he does wrong.............time to get off the arm of the armchair and put the whips away me thinks.
 
Fair point Tanlic; he definitely has more talent in his small finger than the rest of us collectively, no question.
He has had horrific injuries though and they do accumulate on skeletal function as one hits mid 30s.
I just hope his worst injuries are behind him and he walks away from any future fall which , fingers crossed will be rare.
 
Ruby is one of the finest and most gifted jockeys of all time but it's unarguable that he's always been better with hurdlers than chasers. Whether that's purely down to the Mullins factor is debatable however.
 
I don't buy that, Lee. He never looked to shabby on Kauto, Denman, Master Minded or a host of other chasers. Mullins has predominately had a host of really top-class hurdlers, since Walsh returned as full-time stable-jockey - and I think this is tainting the view somewhat.

More generally, I think the whole "last-fence" thing is being overblown to the point, where it is going to put people off backing his mounts for entirely spurious reasoning. It's a dangerous game to be playing, imo.
 
No way it would put me off backing him Grass. The maths would say it is crazy to do so.

If he's riding a 4/1 shot over fences (with his greater all round ability already factored into that price) then the horse is perceived to have a 20% chance of winning. If Ruby's fall rate is hovering around the 1% mark and the numbers being thrown about are close to accurate and let's say for the sake of simplicity that all the other jocks in the race have a significantly better rate of 0.5% then Ruby is only 0.5% "worse". So relatively that would bring his mounts chance down to 19.5% which is 4.13/1 and basically makes no difference.

But I maintain he simply looks more comfortable jumping a hurdle than he does a fence - in comparison to other jockeys. Mick Fitz for example always struck this untrained eye as a natural over the larger obstacles.
 
Grasshopper said:
I don't buy that, Lee. He never looked to shabby on Kauto, Denman, Master Minded or a host of other chasers. Mullins has predominately had a host of really top-class hurdlers, since Walsh returned as full-time stable-jockey - and I think this is tainting the view somewhat.

More generally, I think the whole "last-fence" thing is being overblown to the point, where it is going to put people off backing his mounts for entirely spurious reasoning. It's a dangerous game to be playing, imo.
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Watch Ruby when he beat Long Run in the King George on Kauto Star and you will see poetry in motion. A jockey in complete harmony with horse and one of the finest rides every given to any horse anywhere..
 
For those wanting some insurance, Unibet go 25/1 about Walsh having a last-flight-fall at the Festival. They have apparently not advertised any bet limits.
 
THIS THREAD IS OFFICIALLY CLOSED

Anyone wishing to join the Be Nice fan club please send $60US to the Ruby Walsh hurt my feelings jockeys fund....The account number shall be given to you on request:lol:
 
granger said:
Hope someone puts it to him on television soon

Ideally Rishi
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That bookie fella who sometimes appears on the Morning line, now that'd be funny. Ruby despises him. I'm nearly sure he'd go for him if he put that to him!! Geoff Banks I think he is.


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