Ruby Walsh is back on the sidelines following a crushed vertebra in his neck and torn ligaments in a fall at Killarney on Tuesday, which will keep him out for the next two months.
Here’s a list of the Iron Man of Racing’s injuries – and it isn’t even exhaustive. We’re sure we’ve missed a few broken necks and near-death, out-of-body experiences along the way.
Broken legs (1999)
Ruby has suffered several broken legs during his career, including two on the same leg during the 1999/2000 season. The first break came in a fall in the Pardubice, the famed crazy-cross-country event in the Czech Republic, and he fractured the same limb in a schooling fall shortly after returning to the saddle.
Then just 20 years of age, he would spend five months on the sidelines but was fit enough to take the mount on Papillon, trained by his father Ted, to land a significant gamble in the 2000 Aintree Grand National.
Fractured wrist (2000)
Ruby has sustained two fractured wrists during his career, the first of which came after a fall from Sophronia in a low-grade handicap hurdle in Cork in 2000. You get the sense that Ruby doesn’t really relish holidays, however, and he was back in the saddle less than a month later, having fast-tracked his recovery in order to take the mount on the fancied Florida Pearl in the James Nicholson Memorial Chase at Down Royal.
Result? A well-beaten fourth of five, but that’s beside the point.
Dislocated hip (2001)
When Johnny Ringo was brought crashing to the turf in a handicap hurdle at the Listowel festival in September 2001, there were concerns that Ruby had broken his leg for the third time in two years, with on-course medics fearing that the injuries could include a fractured femur.
Not so, however. Ruby could pop the champagne corks – metaphorically speaking, of course – in his hospital bed when scans revealed that this time he had only suffered a dislocated left hip.
Fractured hip (2003)
Listowel was again the scene of calamity for Ruby in 2003 when he fractured a hip – his other one – after being unshipped from his mount Caishill, an inexperienced four-year-old in a beginners chase on ground described as good to firm. Ouch.
Dislocated shoulder (2007)
We’ll leave the last word on this one to JA McGrath, the Aussie BBC commentator and Telegraph racing journalist:
By any standards, Walsh’s fall was horrendous. He was ‘buried’ by Willyanwoody, who flipped over, landing on his back, and subsequently had to be put down. Walsh spent Saturday night in Cheltenham General Hospital. The jockey missed taking the mount on Granit Jack in the featured Paddy Power Chase, in which the 3-1 favourite, ridden by replacement Liam Heard, crashed at the second-last. The horse broke his neck and died instantly.
So, it could’ve been worse, eh?
Emergency operation to remove spleen (2008)
This one came after a fall from Pride of Dulcote in a handicap hurdle at Cheltenham’s November Open meeting, but the damage was done by a kick in the stomach from another animal.
The kick resulted in a ruptured spleen and he was taken to Cheltenham General Hospital for emergency surgery to remove the organ.
Leaving aside the fact that the spleen is a pretty important part of the body – it’s to do with the immune system, we’re told – Ruby was hopeful of getting back on a horse’s back in time for the mount on Master Minded in the Tingle Creek Chase three weeks later. That was one target the Iron Man of Racing failed to meet, taking a tardy 27 days to return to action after that stint in the emergency room.
Broken arm (April 2010)
It was a case of a double-whammy for Ruby in one of the racing calendar’s biggest races at the 2010 Aintree Festival.
The Aintree Hurdle pits the best hurlers in the game against one another three weeks or so after the Champion at Cheltenham. Ruby was aboard Celestial Halo, who had finished a neck second in the previous year’s Champion Hurdle, and was looking good to go one better at Aintree before crashing to the floor at the third last.
The impact from that may have been bad enough, but it was compounded by a kick from another horse, Won in the Dark, as he lay on the Liverpool turf.
Double leg-break (November 2010)
He spent four months on the sidelines following the above injury, and he would face another long period out of action on an afternoon of decidedly mixed fortunes at Down Royal last year.
Early in the day, he steered Kauto Star and The Nightingale to big-race wins and pocketing in excess of St£100,000 for connections.
If Kauto is one of the greatest racehorses that’s ever set hoof on a racetrack, the pitfalls of National Hunt racing were apparent when Ruby was jocked up on the 109-rated Corrick Bridge later in the day. Tony Martin’s grey hit the deck at the fifth, leaving Walsh needing treatment before he was carted off by ambulance to Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast for surgery to repair a fractured tibia and fibula – the type of injuries that routinely make football fans turn from their TVs in disgust.
Crushed vertebra in neck (July 2011)
His latest injury is expected to keep him out for two months, meaning he will miss the Galway Races through injury for the second year in a row. He crushed the vertebra in a fall from the Michael Hourigan-trained Friendly Society at the first hurdle at Killarney yesterday. Oh, and there was also a torn ligament thrown in for good measure.
Still, it wouldn’t be Ruby if he wasn’t already plotting his return, and he’s keen to be back in the saddle in time for the Listowel festival in September. Yes, that’s the same Listowel festival that was the venue for those injuries in 2001 and 2003 above.
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