NEWS DESK
LONDON
Ruby Walsh, one of the greatest jump jockeys of all time, announced his retirement on Wednesday after landing the Punchestown Gold Cup on Kemboy.
The 39-year-old Irishman announced to a surprised winning trainer Willie Mullins after he came back to the winners enclosure that was the last time the formidable duo would team up.
He hangs up his boots having ridden a record 59 Cheltenham Festival winners — including two Gold Cups on the remarkable Kauto Star — and two Grand Nationals including Papillon in 2000, especially emotional as it was trained by his father Ted.
Walsh said he had always aimed to bow out with a big win — it would have come earlier had Mullins’s Rathvinden landed the Grand National last month where he finished third.
“That’s it, you’ll never see me on a horse again -– I’m finished,” Walsh told reporters. “I’m not going out for the next one.”
Walsh, who rode nigh on 2,800 winners in his 24-year career, had his fair share of injuries in his career.
