Ruby relief after horror fall
RuBy WALSH received two bits of good news yesterday — his broken right leg does not need surgery and his 2015 Champion Hurdle winner, Faugheen, looks as quick as ever.
Walsh, 38, remained in hospital yesterday after breaking his tibia in a fall from Let’s Dance at Punchestown on Saturday. But Irish Turf Club chief medical officer Dr Adrian McGoldrick dismissed concerns that he would not be fit to add to his record 56 Cheltenham Festival wins in March.
‘The leg doesn’t require surgery. It’s in a plaster cast,’ McGoldrick said. ‘It’s too early to say how long he’ll be out for. He’ll have X-rays again in a week’s time. We just have to be guided by his consultants.’
Walsh was returning after an 11- day absence because of a hand injury and fell three times in his first four rides, including on Minnie Dahill and Invitation Only, winning the other race.
A pick-me-up for Walsh was supplied by the Willie Mullins-trained 4-11 favourite Faugheen, who made all the running under substitute jockey Paul Townend to beat 2014 Champion Hurdler Jezki by 16 lengths in the Morgiana Hurdle.
If the question before the race was whether ‘Faugheen the machine’ still had a V8 engine, the answer appeared to be yes, with turbo- chargers still in full working order.
The nine-year-old was halved in price as he was made favourite for the Champion Hurdle at anything from 2-1 to 11-4. Second favourite and defending champion, nicky Henderson’s Buveur D’Air, is due to make his seasonal comeback in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at newcastle a week on Saturday.
A stress fracture had kept Faugheen out of a second successive Cheltenham Festival and Mullins was particularly pleased that his claims that the gelding had been ready to run since the summer now had solid racecourse evidence. Mullins said: ‘It’s nice to get out on the track and let everyone see that we weren’t talking absolute and utter rubbish.’
Alan King-trained 10-1 shot Elgin won the feature Greatwood Hurdle at Cheltenham but the race was marred by the fatal fall of 9-2 favourite London Prize.