"I’m lighter now at 37 than I was when I was 19"- Kildare's Ruby Walsh talks about his early years as a jockey

Kildare native Ruby Walsh has given an insight into the formative years of his life and the early stages of his racing career. Walsh is one of the country’s most successful ever sports personalities, with the Kill jockey racking up well over 2,000 career victories to date, and he has won every major race possible. He has been the leading jockey at eight of the last night Cheltenham festivals, has been crowned the Irish Champion Jockey 10 times and has also won the Australian, American, Scottish, English, Irish and Welsh Grand Nationals. His path to stardom was well formed through a family rooted deep in horse racing. His father Ted is a former jockey and a top class trainer, so it was an obvious career path for a young Ruby to take. Horse racing was not always to the forefront of his mind however, and, speaking at an event in Lawlor’s Hotel in Naas, which launched the Lawlor’s Hotel Novice Hurdle at Naas Racecourse, Walsh explained some of his other loves as a youngster. “I didn’t have a pony until I was seven or eight, I much preferred playing rugby or football. I was playing rugby with Naas by the time I was seven until I was 18, and I really enjoyed that. But I suppose boys are a bit different to girls when it comes to looking after ponies and mucking out ponies and brushing ponies, it wasn’t really my thing. “When I got a bit older and I learnt to ride and gallop, yeah I was interested with that. But I played every kind of sport there was, and there’s plenty to do around here. But riding, I suppose I was 10 or 11 before I was really into it. “Once I got going it was all I ever wanted to do. We’d always come to the racing here in Naas and in Punchestown,” he said. [caption id="attachment_134255" align="alignnone" width="800"] Des Scahill in conversation with legendary jockey Ruby Walsh.[/caption] He received his amateur’s jockey licence when he turned 16, a birthday present of sorts to himself. From that point on it was always going to be about horse racing, and his first taste of action saw him pitted against some faces that would become extremely familiar in years to come. “Yeah I got it for my sixteenth birthday. I applied for my licence and had a race in Leopardstown three or four days later on a horse called Ride Irish and he finished fifth in a bumper. When I look back now, most of the guys that rode in the race are now guys that I rode for; Willie Mullins, Tony Martin, James Nash. The next youngest guy to ride in the race was Timmy Murphy. It was a great thrill, and I went to Tipperary a week later and got beaten half a length by Willie Mullins,” he explained. “I spent that summer with Aidan O’Brien in Ballydoyle and had my first winner in Gowran Park on a horse called Siren Song.” It wasn’t plain sailing though, and the dreaded thought of going back to school at the end of the summer became more of a reality with each passing week. “I thought it was easy, it’s a piece of cake. I’ll just ride another one again in a couple of weeks’ time, but that didn’t really work out that way. Siren Song went back and run in Galway, and unfortunately my summer came to an end when my mother made me go back to school. That was the first big row I ever had with my mother. When I look back now I’d say she was right.” That had a knock-on effect on his weight however, and Walsh admits that he had to cheat the scales at Naas on one occasion to ensure that he was light enough to race. When he left school he had no such problems however. “I was heavy. That was my big fear going back to school, sitting in a classroom all day. You weren’t out working off what you were eating. I guess when I did finish school I worked harder and I got lighter. I’m lighter now at 37 than I was when I was 19.” The Lawlor’s Hotel Novice Hurdle will take place on January 8 in Naas Racecourse, and with it being a Grade One race, Walsh will most likely be on board one of the favourites.