Ruby Walsh: Davy Russell is on his last lap. Now it’s all down to pure luck

Jockey Davy Russell returns at Downpatrick after spending 11 months on the sidelines due to injury. Picture: Healy Racing

On October 11 last year, I lay on a couch in my sitting room watching the racing from Limerick with my wife, Gillian, on a rare Sunday off. We had had a Sunday roast, not a tradition in this house, and enjoyed the afternoon doing nothing. Isabelle was watching with us, our other girls were playing in another room, and as they hurtled to the first in the Munster National, I was content to be where I was.

Westerner Point just about rose in front at the first fence, but your eye was immediately drawn to Doctor Duffy in the middle of the shot, screwing to his right and colliding with Internal Transfer. My eyes were stuck to Doctor Duffy as he slithered toward the ground. I winced at the thought of what was coming for Davy Russell, heading to the floor in the front rank of a competitive field, at the first fence is a guaranteed kicking.