Ruby Walsh: Davy Russell made one of racing’s greatest comebacks

The last of the class of 1979 has walked out the door

Sat, 24 Dec, 2022 - 08:00

There are a few certainties in life, none of which are overly exciting to talk or think about, but there are also a few in sports and one, in particular, that can be good — or awful. Whether you are Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Tiger Woods, or Serena Williams, it doesn’t matter how good you are or what sport you play because if you are lucky, time will catch up with you.

If you are unlucky, the sport has finished you before time even knows you are there. That’s the awful one: Injury ending someone's career before they are ready to move on. The certainty is the end of your career.

Each sport puts different physical demands on its participants, and ageing affects the rate of decline in various sports in other ways. The loss of pace will ruin some and have no bearing on others. The confidence of youth versus the fear of experience will raise issues for many and, of course, the ability to deal with setbacks and return to where you are will test everyone. But those who get to the end and have the opportunity to decide their fate, will always feel lucky.

They will have had the opportunity to see the end coming and be in a position where they can orchestrate the exit for themselves when they are ready. I was one of those lucky ones, and Davy Russell also made himself lucky last Sunday.

I didn’t see the end as soon as he did for himself. I never for one minute thought he wouldn’t be in Leopardstown or Limerick as a jockey next Monday. Even if I did believe he was well through the back nine, I didn’t think he was putting on the 18th.

For me, he had made one of the greatest comebacks in horse racing. He had survived last winter when every fall looked like it could finish him and was physically back to where he had been when he broke his neck in the Munster National on October the 11th, 2020.

He was 41 when he went head-first, spear-like into the Limerick turf when Doctor Duffy fell at the first fence that afternoon, and it was 11 months before he put his boots back on. Your early 40s is old in almost every sport outside of golf and snooker, but he pushed himself past his 42nd birthday and returned for another go at the sport he obviously loves.

He looked fresh when Coach Carter won at Listowel but old when The Greek crashed out at Down Royal. He was Davy on Galvin last Christmas, but he was the real David Russell on Conflated at the Dublin Racing Festival last February.

The lean, hard, decisive jockey I rode against had reappeared and, at 42 years of age, had found a way to bounce like someone much younger. His nerve had never quivered, and fear never entered his mind. He had all the experience to pressure those around him, so he did what he wanted to do from flag fall in more races than he should have.

In the early afternoon of February 5, aboard Conflated at Leopardstown, he rolled off the bend and sent his willing partner to the last like he was 19. All the falls, rehab, doubts, and worries were parked somewhere in Youghal because they weren’t in his head.

I thought it was beautiful to watch him do it and felt it would be a fitting way to walk away as I worked for RTV that Sunday afternoon. Walking was just one simple thing he was lucky to be doing, let alone riding the way he was.

He had won it all: Gold Cups, Grand Nationals, Cheltenham Festival winners, and jockeys’ championships. He had tactical flair, a great seat, passion for what he was doing and a beautiful understanding of how to make race riding awkward for those around him.

He had even beaten his body and forced himself back to the top of the ladder, but he wasn't ready because riding horses is something he simply loved doing.

Like us all, the drag of chasing rides all over the country for the summer months catches up with you, but your love of the winter months can only be sustained with the graft of the summer ones.

The next generation has the energy of youth, and because time can’t be slowed, it eventually gets you. Younger jockeys chase their dreams from Downpatrick to Killarney, and suddenly your opportunities are fewer.

It was catching me, but I was gone before it overtook me, and Davy did the same. He called time on his career, with nearly all of those he would have wanted with him when he did, and those who weren’t were looking down on him. Proud of him, no doubt, as he should be of himself.

He was a great of the Irish weigh room and left the way he started. Firing Liberty Dance to the second-last at Thurles and scorching down the Thurles straight, only this time he was riding into the sunset at the beginning of Christmas week 2022.

Leopardstown or Limerick will miss him on Monday, but Santa Claus came early to the Russells, and I hope he comes to everyone else tonight.

The last of the class of 1979 has walked out the door.