'I’m delighted. I’m not sad' - Davy Russell calls time on glittering career after Thurles win
SEALED WITH A KIS: Davy Russell with wife Edel after he won on Liberty Dance and announced his retirement. Picture: Healy Racing
While the racing community has spent the better part of the last couple of years guessing how and when the curtain would come down on the stellar career of Davy Russell, it is somewhat fitting that it was Thurles, one of the true bastions of National Hunt racing in Ireland, where the three-time champion jockey hung up his riding boots on Sunday afternoon.
Liberty Dance is the mare with the distinction of being Russell’s final winner, and Gordon Elliott, fittingly, the trainer to give the Youghal man his last winner in the saddle.
One of the greatest riders of this or any generation, one always sensed that the bigger the occasion and the greater the obstacle, the more Russell enjoyed the challenge. That, of course, comes from his roots in the point-to-point fields, and was borne out in a career which encompassed much of what the sport has to offer, particularly over the larger obstacles.
All the way back in 2006, Russell announced himself on the Cheltenham Festival stage when taking the Cross Country Chase aboard the Philip Rothwell-trained Native Jack, and from that Festival up to and including the 2018 running, he recorded at least one winner at the meeting.
A total of 25 came his way, the greatest of them in 2014 when he partnered the Jim Culloty-trained Lord Windermere to victory in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
However, it is his association with Tiger Roll which is likely to be best remembered by fanatics and casual racing supporters alike. There is no greater test of horse and rider than the Aintree Grand National and when the two teamed up to tackle the race in 2018, the public rowed in behind them and watched as they delivered in style.
Twelve months later, it was a similar story, only an even more impressive display from the horse and from the saddle as they cruised to victory. Circumstances dictated that there would be no running of the race in 2020 and thus the opportunity to stand beside Red Rum as a three-time winner of the race – a position both would richly have deserved – was denied.
Inevitably in this most dangerous of sports, however, the good times and the bad timed interchange rather quickly and there were injuries along the way.
When Russell, then 41, sustained a fractured and dislocated vertebrae in that horror fall at the first fence in the 2020 Munster National, many thought that might have been his time to call it a day.
But we’ve seen it before amongst those who have reached the pinnacle of this sport, that group of people who are made of sterner stuff and of which Russell is a fully paid-up member: accepting defeat is not an option.
That didn’t stop the rumours, but neither did it stop Russell returning to the saddle and, quite frankly, returning to his very best.
Amongst the Tiger Rolls, Samcros, Envoi Allens, Delta Works, Presenting Percys, Lord Windermeres, Solwhits, Conflateds and Weapon’s Amnesty’s, the name Call Me Lyreen won’t earn many a mention but take a moment to look back at that one’s win at this year’s Dublin Racing Festival for a reminder of just how good Russell still was in his final year in the saddle.
Quality from start to finish, that was Davy Russell the jockey. Just as when Ruby Walsh and Tony McCoy hung up their boots, the riding ranks are lesser for his departure, but we racing fans were fortunate to have had the chance to enjoy it for as long as we did.
A loss for us, but a relief, no doubt, to the Russell family. And for the three-time champion himself, as he cut a relaxed figure upon Sunday’s announcement.
“I’m delighted. I’m not sad. I’m really happy to have done it the way we done it,” said Russell. “Thurles is such a centre point of our sport, and there’s a fantastic crowd here, and it’s great to do it on one of Gordon’s as he’s been such a brilliant part of my career.
“I’m thinking about it since they opened me up in Dublin a couple of years ago, but I was always happy to ride,” he added, exposing the character which made him so successful.
“I’ve had such a marvellous couple of years. The last couple really were so enjoyable. I actually had so much fun the last couple of months riding. I got a couple of falls and was sore, but no sorer than I was before, and I could have kept going, but I just felt this was the time. That’s why I did it now.
“There was no point in everybody wondering why I’m not retired, I’d rather them wondering ‘why is he retiring?’ The one thing I do love about it is that I never lost my bottle – that was the most important part of it.
“I spoke to Gordon about it and said the next one (winner) would be the last one. I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, but he was delighted.
“Jack (Kennedy), Jordan (Gainford), Sam (Ewing) and Denis (O’Regan) are fantastic riders, and my gap will be filled by one of them.
“All through my career, I’ve ridden for some extraordinary people who had huge passion for the game. I rode a lot of winners for a lot of different people and every one of them was as important as the other.”
