Ruby Walsh: My Christmas wish list is a little different to what it used to be
Ashdale Bob and Paddy Kennedy after winning the Grade 2 Betvictor Novice Hurdle at Navan yesterday. Picture: Healy Racing.
Micheál Martin said yesterday that he doesn’t expect fans or spectators to be back at sporting events before the autumn and, as I sat at the edge of the parade ring before the first race yesterday in Navan with Shane McGowan’s Fairytale Of New York playing out over the loudspeakers, I realised how lonely a racecourse is with no one in attendance.
Yesterday at Navan and tomorrow at Thurles are the traditional pre-Christmas race meetings when you get a sense of the festive season but right now it just feels like any other day. Business as usual but it’s still Christmas time, a time of joy and happiness but also a time of hope.
But my Christmas wish list is a little different to what it used to be. I still don’t want snow or frost, rain by night and dry days, please, without too much sunshine - we don’t want to have to bypass jumps that may or may not be affected by the glare of the sun bouncing off wet grass - and four full days of action-packed racing.
The big difference now is that I want all the clashes the Christmas racing season usually provides, whereas, when I rode, I selfishly wanted them all divided up so I could try and win as many races as possible.
Time moves on and the big clashes start this afternoon at Ascot, where Thyme Hill and Paisley Park go head-to-head in a rematch of their Newbury tussle a month ago.
Today being a Grade 1 means it’s a level playing field weights-wise. However, I don’t think the three-pound turnaround Paisley has today will be enough to swing the result for him as Thyme Hill committed the biggest crime for staying hurdlers at Newbury by racing keenly in the first mile and still had enough in the tank to hold off Paisley park from the last hurdle home.
Navan, of course, raced yesterday to avoid last Sunday’s All-Ireland Final and, whilst the opportunities the Christmas schedule will present to second and third-string jockeys will be welcome, the opportunity the Covid pandemic has presented to Paddy Kennedy is better than any Christmas present he will receive next Friday morning.
Robert Power’s enforced relocation to the UK because of travel restrictions has opened the door for the hard-working Dingle native. Paddy is, of course, Jack’s big brother and, whilst he didn’t appear onto the racing scene with the same reputation or start with the bang that Jack did, he worked his way from the bottom up.
He started will Dessie Hughes and, after Dessie sadly passed away, his only move has been to Jessica Harrington’s but his progression through the riding ranks has a been long road, taking any spare rides he could and hoping to win on second and third-string horses.
It is his work ethic and willingness to keep trying that has gotten him to where he is now and that was riding the biggest winner of his career yesterday at Navan on Ashdale Bob in the Grade 2 novice hurdle.
Every youngster that starts in racing expects success to come straight away but the reality is only a very few will achieve that and many who do start with a flurry and are ill-equipped to deal with the inevitable lull that’s comes to everyone’s career.
Being able to deal with the knocks and setbacks is something that has to be learned but if you are willing to work hard and show loyalty to the yards you are in, you will get your chance at some stage. What you do with that chance is then your destiny and Paddy Kennedy is testament to all that. He is getting his chance and taking with it with both hands.
