Ruby has no doubt he’ll be ready for Cheltenham
RUBY WALSH is confident he will be fit to ride at the Cheltenham Festival in March.
The jockey’s season was derailed last Saturday when he sustained a broken leg in a fall from Let’s Dance at Punchestown.
Walsh’s leg does not require an operation, though, and he told Racing UK: ‘Hopefully it will heal quickly.
‘A broken leg is usually 12 weeks, give or take — [there is] 16 weeks and three days from the fall to the Cheltenham Festival.
‘I have 15 and a half (weeks), or 15 and three-quarters to be ready.
‘I don’t think it matters how much experience you have. You can only do what the doctors tell you and be as patient as you can.’
The first big ride Walsh missed was on comeback king Faugheen, who impressed on his return after 22 months off the track in the Morgiana Hurdle at Punchestown in the hands of Paul Townend.
‘It was great see Faugheen winning on Sunday, but heartbreaking not to be on his back and that will be the case every weekend between now and when you return.
‘That’s the mental pain of any sports person who’s sitting on the sidelines,’ he said.
‘His homework had been very good. He was showing us at home that he had retained what we thought was all his old ability. He obviously had to go to the track and show that. To me, he certainly did on Sunday. You take the race as a whole and look at it, it was a very good performance.’
Nicky Henderson, trainer of reigning champion hurdler Buveur D’Air said he found Faugheen’s comeback victory ‘fairly scary’.
Willie Mullins’ charge is a bestpriced 9/4 favourite to regain the Champion Hurdle crown, which he claimed in 2015, with Buveur D’Air next best at 5/1.
‘Watching Faugheen the other day was fairly scary, I must admit,’ said Henderson. ‘I watched it with JP [McManus] and we just looked at each other. He [Faugheen] was frighteningly impressive.’
Buveur D’Air warmed up for his intended reappearance in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle on Saturday week with a racecourse gallop at Newbury yesterday morning.
The six-year-old was joined by stablemates Divin Bere and Charli Parcs, with the latter being aimed towards Newbury’s Ladbrokes Intermediate Hurdle — registered as the Gerry Feilden.
The Seven Barrows handler added: ‘I was pleased with that. He [Buveur D’Air] is big now and carries plenty of weight.
‘There is a long way to go and he has done a hell of a lot of work already. It was just what we wanted to do with him. He would not be as wound up as he would be for the Champion Hurdle.
‘We are not racing but they went a good gallop and it was a good bit of work, so it was all good.’
Another potential clash between Henderson and Mullins-trained superstars that promises to set pulses racing is Altior versus Douvan in the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham next March.
Altior was last week ruled out of an intended reappearance in the Tingle Creek at Sandown by Henderson due to a wind problem, which has since been operated on.
Henderson said: ‘You would like to think Altior and Douvan will meet in March because that is where it really counts. Hopefully he [Altior] will be there to say hello to Douvan.
‘It [operation] all went 100 per cent and he is back in his box doing fine.’
THE BHA will this morning announce that trainers will have to declare if a horse has had a breathing operation from January. Currently trainers do not have to reveal the procedure, which can have a significant effect on performance.