standing friend and rival, some admirers of
Walsh ask how McCoy can be acclaimed the
best jump jockey of all time, when he might
not even be the best of his own genera-
tion?) Time after time, you see lesser rid-
ers suffer a rush of blood as they kick their
mounts clear on the downhill run towards
the final obstacles. Time after time, they
are reeled in by a more restrained rival: very
often Walsh, making the most of his associ-
ation with the extraordinary Willie Mullins,
seemingly the perennial champion trainer
of Ireland; but often also a man like Davy
Russell, as seasoned as he is nerveless, cut-
ting quietly through the pack as the early
stampede tells on those up front.
Walsh is now 37, and presumably it cannot
be too long before he follows McCoy into
retirement. That already lends a nostalgic
edge to the bedlam in the stands as passes
the post standing bolt upright in the irons,
brandishing his whip in the air, on some rag-
ing hot favourite trained by Mullins. The
adulation resounds in wave after wave as
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