Ruby Walsh: Love can open a new door for herself in Juddmonte International at York

Ruby Walsh thinks Love can prove the super sub and change the path she follows from here to November

Love and Ryan Moore win the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes for trainer Aidan O’Brien at Royal Ascot last June. Picture: Healy Racing

Most sporting calendars are starting to get back into sync after the disturbances the Covid-19 pandemic created in the spring of 2020. Dates are engrained in our brains. Well, not exact dates but certain weeks and times of the year. Mid-August equals the resumption of the Premier League, which also triggers the thoughts of York’s Ebor festival with the Juddmonte International, the Yorkshire Oaks, and the Nunthorpe sharing top billing.

In 2020, York was the first meeting that calendar changes had not impacted, so all the right horses turned up. Sadly, this year it is an injury that means one of the essential horses is missing. St Mark’s Basilica should have been strutting his stuff on the Knavesmire, trying to add the Juddmonte to his French Classic and Eclipse victories before returning to Ireland for the Champion Stakes on Champions’ Weekend in early September.