1 WIN, 3 FALLS & A LEG BREAK FOR WALSH
RUBY WALSH is a doubt for the Cheltenham Festival in March after he broke his right leg in a fall at Punchestown yesterday.
Walsh, the winning-most rider in Festival history with 56 victories, suffered the injury when 4-9 favourite Let’s Dance, trained by boss Willie Mullins, crashed out at the fourthlast flight of the Listed Frontline Security Grabel Mares Hurdle.
The fall was Walsh’s third of the day and will rule the 38-year-old, successful on his other mount at the Co Kildare track, out until the spring.
“He’s had X-rays in Naas, and he has a fracture of his lower right leg,” Walsh’s agent and sister Jennifer said last night. “He is going to hospital to see a specialist and we probably won’t know how serious it is until tomorrow.”
Walsh had been due to partner Mullins’ 2015 Champion Hurdler Faugheen on his comeback in Punchestown’s Morgiana Hurdle this afternoon.
“My heart goes out to Ruby,” said Faugheen’s owner, Rich Ricci. “He’s devastated as you would expect.
“It’s desperately unfortunate for him,” added Ricci, whose nineyear-old will now be ridden by Paul Townend.
At Cheltenham, the rain arrived in time for Splash Of Ginge, who profited from softening ground conditions to capture the Betvictor Gold Cup from Starchitect.
The 25-1 shot continued the vibrant form of the Nigel Twiston-davies stable and was the biggest victory of 23-year-year-old Tom Bellamy’s career.