It’s rarely mentioned now, but Ruby Walsh’s first ride at the Cheltenham Festival wasn’t exactly smooth.

Jim Culloty can safely be described as a legend now.

A new documentary reveals how the only horse capable of beating the legendary Arkle was his stable mate, Flyingbolt but that they only had one little-known explosive race together around their home gallops.

I’m going to go back to my RTÉ days for my best interview.

Ruby Walsh has an enviable book of rides at Cheltenham as he bids to add to his record tally of winners at the Festival.

EARLIER this week’s boxing’s ‘The Greatest’ Muhammad Ali, celebrated his 70th birthday and 50 years ago yesterday, National Hunt racing’s equivalent, the peerless steeplechaser Arkle, gained his first victory in a modest novice hurdle at Navan.

THE death has taken place of George Williams, the man who bred the legendary Captain Christy.

LIAM McLoughlin of Ratoath, Co Meath, who has died at the age of 75, had the distinction of riding legendary steeplechaser Arkle to his first victory in Navan in January, 1962.

IT wasn’t Ruby or Tony, Kauto Star or Denman — but it was an Irish jockey from Co Galway who crossed the finish line to take the Gold Cup and win the most anticipated race of the Cheltenham festival.

THERE seems little doubt the Cheltenham Festival will undergo a major alteration as early as 2012.

RUBY WALSH’S 2010 Cheltenham Festival may not have been quite all he had hoped for but the Irish Examiner columnist ended up the leading jockey at the meeting for the fifth time.

CHAMPION trainer Paul Nicholls and the Cheltenham Festival’s winning-most jockey, Ruby Walsh, pulled suffering punters out of a hole as Big Buck’s obliged as the 5-6 favourite in yesterday’s Ladbrokes World Hurdle.

ST PATRICK’S DAY couldn’t have kicked off better for Ruby Walsh. It also ended as we expected, but for three hours there in the middle, it looked like it was all going to be one, big damp squib.

Ruby Walsh became the winning-most jockey in the history of the Cheltenham Festival when Sanctuaire sprinted clear to win the Fred Winter Juvenile Novices’ Handicap Hurdle.

RIGHTLY or wrongly, National Hunt jockeys these days are rated by the number of winners they ride at the Cheltenham Festival.

IF I live to be a hundred, I will never experience another week like this. To ride seven winners at Cheltenham is mind-boggling and far beyond my wildest expectations.

IT WAS not the tightest Gold Cup finish we have seen, nor the most exciting or gruelling. What it most certainly was, however, was the most extraordinary race in the history of the event.

KAUTO STAR didn’t just win yesterday’s totesport Cheltenham Gold Cu p, he absolutely overwhelmed the opposition with a display of jumping and staying power which was simply breathtaking.

IT’S those things in life that people maintain can never be done that fuel mankind’s ability to consistently disprove the theory, and yesterday’s Cheltenham Gold Cup only underlined the point.

Ninetieth Minute helped move Ireland closer to a record haul at the Cheltenham Festival when his dogged Coral Cup success formed the third leg of a second-day four-timer for the Irish raiders.

Quite.

FAIRYTALES are supposed to be the province of Hans Christian Andersen, but the Cheltenham Festival once again proved its ability yesterday to weave the most incredible stories together when Kicking King won the Gold Cup for Ireland.

Look back through the years at the Irish names which have graced National Hunt’s Pantheon of greats and you’ll find no shortage of contenders.

AS A JOCKEY, the late Pat Taaffe is rightly regarded as one of the all-time greats in National Hunt racing on the basis of his own record in the sport.