Ruby Walsh: I’d love to have ridden in more Dublin Racing Festivals

Bachasson and Paul Townend win the Limestone Lad Hurdle in Naas last week. His hardest choice today comes in the first where he had to pick between Gaillard Du Mesnil and Stattler in the opening Nathaniel Lacy & Partners Novice Hurdle

I love this weekend and would usually be on route to Dublin this morning to drop my bags into a hotel before the racing and rugby starts. Not today, but hopefully next year I will again, with Gillian, all my friends and thousands of you as we descend on Foxrock to enjoy two very special days racing.

I am not ducking the failings of the IHRB in the week just past (you read my views on that below) but there is no way I am putting those who are holding us back on top of the page instead of what drives the sport forward.

I know my association with Willie Mullins’ stable has probably always meant I liked the Leopardstown post-Christmas meetings more than most, but one of the few regrets I have as a jockey is that I only got to ride at this meeting in its current format on one occasion.

Eight Grade Ones and four big-money handicaps in 48 hours was the sort of environment I loved: Pressure, excitement, quality, decisions, atmosphere and tension.

It will start with a bang at five past one today and I don’t think the intensity will drop till it all finishes at 4.40 tomorrow evening.

I can best put myself in Paul Townend’s shoes this morning, the dread of his hardest choice coming first where he had to pick between Gaillard Du Mesnil and Stattler in the opening Nathaniel Lacy & Partners Novice Hurdle over 2m 6f, hoping he has picked right but knowing neither may beat Gentlesmangame, Cape Gentleman, Holymacapony or Ashdale Bob.

He will be hoping he wins and Stattler finishes second but knowing if both finish out of the first three that the spring won’t be as fruitful for him when they split at Cheltenham and Punchestown.

His staying novice hurdle hopes are in the same basket today, and so are his Champion Chase and Ryanair Chase hopes in the Ladbrokes Dublin Chase. He will have had an easier choice here in picking Chachun Pour Soi over Min, but he will look at the race slightly different to us in that he will want an exact replay of last year, whereas we will all want Min to get closer. The small field will suit, and I expect Paul will just follow Patrick Mullins aboard Min until he decides it’s time to rev Chacun’s engine somewhere in the last five furlongs.

The Patrick Ward & Company Arkle has probably had him thinking the most. Energumene has made all to win both his chasing starts but Felix Desjy likes to bowl along too and both Darver Star and Unexcepted won’t be too far away from the front end.

Captain Guinness followed Paul at Naas but beaten horses tend to change tactics so what will Rachael Blackmore decide to do on him? So many uncertainties to factor in because a strong gallop at Christmas, set by some of today’s runners, allowed Franco De Port to swoop and conquer from way off the pace. No doubt he will be trying the same again, so the pace will be key, and it could be two furlongs into the race before Paul knows what to do.

He will sit out the Matheson Handicap Chase where Danny Mullins rides Willie’s shortest-priced runner, Pont Aven. I doubt either of Willie’s have enough in hand to beat some of the more unexposed types in Entoucas or Aramax, so Paul will be regrouping to think about Saldier in Chanelle Pharma Champion Hurdle.

Sharjah will be dropping in and Honeysuckle going forward, so what to do? Will he be the one to sit third behind her and Petit Mouchoir? He was too keen at Christmas so will need cover, but Paul knows Sharjah is faster and Honeysuckle gets 2m4f, so he could be caught between a rock and a hard place.

He needs luck and I think he could end up saying well done to Patrick Mullins shortly after they cross the line as I feel Sharjah looked a better horse than ever before when winning here in December.

Riding the top weight, Buildmebuttercup, in the Ladbroke handicap Hurdle will bring down the curtain for him on day one, but Gordon Elliott’s Eskylane looks well treated in this race.

Whilst his riding might be over, his interests won’t be as he watches the Goffs Future Stars Bumper to see if he has a potential top novice hurdler for next season.

Patrick Mullins has opted for Kilcruit, the name of his grandmother Maureen Mullins’ home place, but Willie’s yard is split as to who might the best of the stable’s three. My pick would be Ramillies, but Gordon’s Chemical Energy could beat them all.

Day two opens with the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Paddy Mullins Mares’ Handicap Hurdle and Paul would love to decide which one of Willie’s to pick as they approach two out. Obviously that can’t be the case so, given a pick in the race, I would choose Telmesmethinggirl, of Henry de Bromhead’s. I don’t know what Paul would choose, I am only pretending to be in his shoes, not inside his head, but in the Spring Juvenile Hurdle he will have to figure out a way of getting the highly talented Youmdor to jump a lot better than he has on his previous two starts.

Although I haven’t ridden any of Willie’s on track, Saint Sam would look the ideal type here for me. It’s a small field lacking a front-runner and he might be the easiest one to dictate the race on and stretch the others from the front.

Next up is a banker, Appreciate It, in the Chanelle Pharma Novice Hurdle. Straightforward and simple, he jumps, stays and quickens, so pop out handy and if the only other option on paper to lead, Master Mcshee, decides to lead, sit in second and take a lead, otherwise make the running.

The William Fry Handicap Hurdle won’t be so easy as a full field embarks on the three-mile journey. If they go hard, pull back and come late, or if they crawl, get close to the pace and be ready to kick off the home turn. The problems here are whether your horse is good enough, and will the five or six other jockeys do the same thing. Sorry Paul, I’ll be cheering for Pure Genius here anyway, so I don’t mind if you get this one wrong!

Monkfish, in the Flogas Novice Chase, will be a similar ride to Appreciate It in its simplicity, but coming down in trip at this grade presents its own pitfalls, with quality horses waiting on your tail to outsprint you. Yet, if you go too fast to outstay them you too could capsize.

A measured approach is required and just finding a good rhythm will do, but Paul will know Asterion Forlonge could be a danger, so conviction will still be needed.

The featured Paddy Power Gold Cup has a small field, but Kemboy looks the obvious front-runner, Minella Indo will probably sit second, Delta Work likes to be wide and off the pace and The Storyteller has come from the very back in his last two runs. So, what do you on Melon?

Possibly sit third down the inside, tracking Minella Indo all the way to the back of the last fence and hoping you can flash by him from there. Perhaps, but going out in the race I would think Minella Indo was the one I had to beat.

The Gaelic Plant Hire Leopardstown Chase is the penultimate contest and Fan De Blues going up in trip is my pick, but if Paul Townend is waiting on this race for a winner, God bless his dog tomorrow night.

The Coolmore NH Sires Kew Gardens Mares’ Bumper will round it all off. Willie runs five and I am going to back Patrick’s choice in picking Brandy Love.

IHRB hierarchy really must learn from latest fiasco

Right now, days must feel like weeks for all of those in authority at the IHRB, and I deliberately skipped commenting on the stewards’ decision last Friday, January 29, as I waited for the IHRB to do the right thing.

I decided then to give them a week to reopen the case involving Brazos and Folcano after division one of the Graigs Lane Maiden Hurdle at Navan, a power they have but one most commonly used to revisit cases where penalties handed out were deemed by those at HQ to be too lenient or if new evidence arises that was unavailable to the race day stewards.

To a person, I have met nobody who feels the stewards called this enquiry right, and even they themselves must feel they cocked it up when you think they found Kevin Brouder, rider of Brazos, guilty of careless riding and suspended him for two days but didn’t award the race to Folcano, who finished a nose behind him.

Basically, it is like the referee handing you a yellow card but waving play on to your advantage even though you committed the foul. I am sorry, but that is not how sport works and whilst reopening of the case now would not reward anyone who backed Folcano, it could put in place the correct sanction, which is the reversal of the first two places, and surely that’s what being head of integrity means.

Then again, if you happened to watch Naas last Sunday, it is easy to assume the IHRB have been busy all week trying to figure out how many mistakes were made there, how they prevent them happening again, and if, at this stage, any face can be saved.

The apology and extensive report issued by the IHRB on Thursday is welcome. The official starter, Derek Cullen, made a mistake and should not have started the ITBA Award Winners Handicap Hurdle when he did.

Shakeytry whipped around before the race started and carried Sean Says and Aarons Day into the corner of the two-mile starting area, thus meaning none of them were afforded the opportunity of a fair start. But, unlike the UK, Irish starters work alone, whereas their counterparts across the Irish Sea have an assistant standing behind the field for an extra pair of eyes in cases like this. A simple enough system, but then how the race-day stewards made the result official before they announced an enquiry beggars more belief.

All has been explained by the IHRB, but in an age where TMOs explain their decisions live on rugby pitches, the silence of the IHRB on both days, in both circumstances, really was deafening.