13th April 2010

Ruby broken, but not broke





So Ruby Walsh will be out of action until June following the broken arm he suffered after a nasty fall. Ruby was due to ride favourite for the Grand National Big Fella Thanks this past Saturday but after suffering a fall in a previous race on Celestial Halo he was kicked in the arm by Won In The Dark forcing stewards to put screens up around the jockey. Walsh headed back to Ireland on Saturday evening following the Aintree meeting and his trip to the local hospital.



It brings to notice just how dangerous life as a jockey can be, many jockeys have been forced to give up their career's because of injury, many amateurs don't make the big time because they are harmed. Last week at Aintree we saw a few painful looking falls, notably when Aiden Coleman was stepped on after he became unseated from his ride on Thursday.



The injured jockey fund was set partly because of this, to help re-establish careers and pay bills for jockeys who have dedicated their lives to the sport before having their careers cut short because of one really bad fall.


Obviously it is the horses that we mustn't forget about, those that make this sport a turn off for many would be viewers. The deaths of some animals during a race does not make for peasant reading. Is the sport cruel to animals? Some would say yes, but the sport does everything to protect them from cruelty. Race horses are athletes and they are treated as precious objects by trainers and owners. They are treated to massage baths when they have pulled muscles for instance, that is more than I get. And horses do want to race, if they didn't they would act like King John's Castle did at the start of the National and blankly refuse to go anywhere. Who could blame him some might say, it was a nice day and he did that last year, I'd probably have second thoughts about running four and a half miles on a nice spring day when you could just refuse and be a spectator instead.


If a horse does not want to race, it will not, but the truth is they love it because it is in their blood. Like the jockeys who go out there every day risking life and limb, true they do it because they love it and of course it also pays if you happen to be good enough.


Sympathies go to Ruby Walsh after missing the Grand National but I'm sure he won't mind his friend Tony McCoy claiming a first victory in the race.

(Good Friends: Walsh and McCoy leave the weighing room together)