Ruby Walsh: Thrills aplenty this season but a tragic day in Thurles casts large shadow
The loss of Michael O'Sullivan is one that can never be rectified or changed and never forgotten. Pic: ©INPHO/Tom Maher
What happens and what matters. That’s the story of life, which was the story of the 2024/2025 National Hunt season. What happened? The Closutton Express kept powering forward and Willie Mullins strode into Sandown Park last Saturday to claim a second British trainers’ title.
This afternoon, alongside many of his trusted lieutenants, he will claim his 19th Irish title as Patrick Mullins lifts the amateur title, Paul Townend regains the jockeys’ one, and Jody Townend retains the lady riders’ one.
JP McManus will lift the owners’ trophy to go alongside the British one he also got last Saturday, and only the conditional jockeys’ trophy will have no connection to Closutton. John Shinnick needs a winner today to draw level with Tiernan Power Roche, and maybe Answer To Kayf will answer that question, but he needs a double to beat him. If Big Debates delivers, there will be no debate about who the champion conditional is.
A season is a body of work over 12 months, with peaks and troughs along the way. Every licence holder or investor will measure their year in different ways, but tomorrow will be a new dawn, and one some can’t wait for.
Others will choose to reflect on a campaign of great rewards, and while Willie Mullins will cherish the memories of April 5, 2025 forever, more people than you think will have a memory to lighten many dark days ahead.
Gordon Elliott broke the €4 million prize-money barrier, Gavin Cromwell edged his way closer to the top two and bagged a Gold Cup, and Henry de Bromhead will think of a glorious Thursday in Gloucester when he re-energised Bob Olinger.
Ross O’Sullivan broke into the top 10 with a fabulous week on the west coast in August, and Barry Connell made hay by never doubting Marine Nationale. Paul Nolan was back on the Cheltenham scoresheet, and Phillip Rothwell nearly reached 40 for the season.
Joseph O’Brien will look back on Christmas more gleefully than any kid, as not even his Santa Claus could have given him the presents he got during the festive season.
The narrative tells a tale of total domination from the top, but the reality shows many people embracing the challenge of catching up with the leaders.
On the rider front, Paul Townend will want this season to run forever, but Jack Kennedy will be hoping 25/26 is a different year for him. His understudies, Sam Ewing and Danny Gilligan, gave Gordon Elliott the belief that they can carry the load when Jack is away. Sam will once again be entrusted with the job of steering Brighterdaysahead today, and the Cullentra team will hope the season ends on a high.
Rachael Blackmore couldn’t have met with injury at a worse time in her season, but she showed great resolve to regain momentum in the spring and proved class is permanent and form is only temporary when she delivered two perfectly judged rides aboard Air Of Entitlement and Bob Olinger in March.
Her deputy through the winter, Darragh O’Keefffe, continued his rise to the top with a fine season’s work, as did Keith Donoghue, while Danny Mullins and Seán O’Keeffe devoured any crumbs that fell from Paul Townend’s table.
The rider who will possibly look back upon this season as his finest is the man maturing like a fine wine, and as one of the elder statesmen of the weigh-room, Mark Walsh hasn’t had many better years in the saddle.
He capped it all with a victory in the Gold Cup, and now heads into the summer months with the prospect of a season ahead where he could be riding the Champion Chase, Ryanair, and Gold Cup favourites in Majborough, Fact To File, and Inothewayurthinkin. I can't think of many better ways of making the summer short.
Across the pond, Seán Bowen and Harry Cobden moved themselves up to another level this season with some of their riding displays and winners aboard Irish-trained horses in the UK and here during the week at Punchestown which could push them in positions whereby they put pressure on some of the home-based riders to keep the rides they have.
Competition in the weigh-room is never a bad thing as it drives the standard of what is required in the right direction, and as an outsider looking back in, I realise that competition makes the sport all the better to watch.
That’s a brief overview of what happened and what might happen, but what mattered was a tragic day in Thurles. It was a day nobody wanted or needed, but a day every single person in this sport was reminded of what really matters.
There will be more champions, more winners and more losers. People will get jobs and lose jobs, set records and break records. All of those will happen and at that moment they matter to those involved, but in the greater scheme of life, what happened to Micheal O’Sullivan mattered to everyone and always will.
His loss is what a loss is, one that can never be rectified or changed and never forgotten. The people you hold closest to you are what matters in life. You win with them and lose with them, and you celebrate and suffer with them. Things happen, but life matters, and Micheal is the man who matters most this season.
The lights in a bright light blew out, but the glow will always be remembered.
