Racing: What makes Ruby sparkle

0 Comments | Sunday Mirror, Dec 11, 2005 | by ALASTAIR DOWN

THIS column had never hidden its admiration for Ruby Walsh and on Monday he broke an eight-year AP McCoy stranglehold by winning the Jump Jockey of the Year title at the annual HWPA awards in London.

The letters HWPA stand for Horserace Writers and Photographers Association and not, as some dis-respectful folk have suggested, the Hopelessly Wasted Pisspots Alliance.

All the awards are voted for by working members of the racing press and are the most prestigious gongs of all. I can reveal that Ruby edged out AP by the narrowest of margins.

As with all trade organisations there is always some hopeless, inefficient, badly disorganised twit who leaves everything to the last minute and is only just in time to cast his vote.

In the HWPA's case it is that fool Alastair Down, who writes for the Sunday Mirror and Racing Post.

It transpires that after all the votes had been counted AP and Ruby were tied on exactly the same number of votes, with my final nod edging Walsh home by the shortest of short nuts.

AP doesn't like being beaten at anything but as he is on record as saying that he believes Ruby to be the most complete jockey he rides against, I doubt his nose will be too far out of joint, particularly as the pair are great mates.

In a fine acceptance speech, Ruby immediately reminded the 700- strong gathering that his thoughts were with the family and friends of young Tom Halliday, who was killed at Market Rasen this year.

It was typical of the man that, in a moment of personal triumph, he would make such a point. He then went on to pay tribute to his father Ted, who has played the pivotal role in the making of his son.

Ted Walsh is a brilliant man with words and highly amusing. But he is much more than that because he has strong opinions which he expresses fearlessly and has never once cut the cloth of his views to suit anyone else's fashions. His outspokenness has made him some enemies, but you would trust the feller with your life as he lives up to his own high standards of behaviour - and woe betide you if you fall short of what he thinks is acceptable.

Ruby may be the household name among Ted and Helen Walsh's four children, but he never gets treated any differently to the other three and there is just as much rejoicing over the less publicised personal triumphs of brother Ted Jnr or sisters Jennifer and Katy.

If you don't admire the family Walsh as a unit, there is something wrong with your idea of what a family should be.

For me Ruby's strength is the sheer variety of rides he can give to a horse, every performance in the saddle tailored to a particular horse's needs.

They settle for him, but he can fire them up when needed. He is rarely in a place he doesn't want to be during a race and is great at a fence. Throw in at least half a brain and a lack of arrogance and you have a proper sportsman.

It is of course that time of year when awards are handed out left, right and middle. On Thursday it was the Racehorse Owners' awards and they came up with a hugely popular winner of their Racehorse of the Year title in Sergeant Cecil, who polled twice as many votes as Moscow Flyer, with Arc winner Hurricane Run third and Derby hero Motivator fourth.

In the combined 500 runnings of the Northumberland Plate, Ebor and Cesarewitch no horse had ever won all three until Sergeant Cecil came along.

Owned by Terry Cooper and trained in deepest Devon by Rod Millman, he proved himself an exceptional handicapper by winning three of the toughest events the Flat has to offer.

The owners' accolade usually goes to a great horse from one of the mightily monied Flat battalions but that is just another mould this remarkable horse has broken.

Sergeant Cecil is great in his way and that never-say-die late- rattle style has endeared him to the public, who know something genuine when they see it.

At Cheltenham yesterday we had the Robin Cook Memorial Chase - and how much that great democrat and man of the people would have relished a horse of humble origins routing the posh and the blue- blooded to claim his own piece of racing history.