No dream return for Ruby

THERE was no dream return to racing for Ruby Walsh when his only mount of the afternoon, Salute Him, trailed in fourth of four behind Plan A in the Kerrymaid Hurdle at the opening stage of the Listowel festival yesterday.

A smiling Walsh, however, was more than pleased to be back, after sustaining two fractured vertebrae in his neck in a fall at Killarney on July 12.

“I’m grand”, reported Walsh. “The ground didn’t beat my horse, there was no gallop and he was just too free.”