Ruby Walsh: Why doesn't the home team want to play?

WAITING FOR HONEY: Racegoers flock around the Leopardstown parade ring to welcome back Honeysuckle and Rachael Blackmore after the Irish Champion Hurdle last Sunday. The noise and the atmosphere at the Dublin Racing Festival was special, writes Ruby Walsh. Picture: Healy Racing

Last Saturday, the cheer that greeted the horses as they broke through the tape for the opening race at the Dublin Racing Festival made me smile. I don’t know why, but it did. The noise, the atmosphere, possibly a rush of adrenaline, but something just felt so cool about being on that grandstand, absorbing it all.

And the racing certainly didn’t fail to deliver in what was always going to be the Willie versus Gordon show.