SA FUREUR WON one of the maiden hurdles at Punchestown on Sunday, another winner for Davy Russell, and they applauded him in, just as they had applauded him in 1579 times before in Ireland and Britain. We thought that he was done at 1579, ninth in the all-time list of National Hunt jockeys. He wasn’t.
“It feels great,” the rider told Kevin O’Ryan on Racing TV as he walked back in towards the weigh room. “It’s great to be back in the winner’s enclosure. The crowd is what makes it. The supporters that are here. If I’m giving joy to them, it makes it all worthwhile.”
The preamble to Davy Russell’s 1580th win has been well told by now. His previous win was on Liberty Dance in a listed mares’ novices’ hurdle at Thurles in mid-December, after which he announced his retirement from race riding.
He seemed comfortable in his skin when he did, happy to walk away on his own terms, a glittering career in the bag. A Gold Cup, two Grand Nationals, three championships, 25 Cheltenham Festival wins and just about every big race on the Irish National Hunt racing calendar.
Then Jack Kennedy suffered that injury at Naas last Sunday when poor Top Bandit fell. It’s desperate for Jack Kennedy, the talent that he has, just when he was getting a run at it, 20 clear in the jockeys’ championship. It is the fifth time that he has broken his leg, and that’s just horrible luck for one so young, for one so talented.
Jack Kennedy will be back, that’s for sure, but his injury left a temporary conundrum at Cullentra, just three weeks after Davy Russell’s retirement. The answer was obvious.
Circumstances dictate.
Davy Russell had been out for just three weeks. You could be suspended for as long, or out with a minor injury. He had stayed fit, working with his horses at home, riding out for Gordon Elliott. He felt good. He said that he rode more horses out at Cullentra last Wednesday morning than he had on any other morning in years.
And he was riding as well as ever this season. From the front on Itswhatunitesus at Cork, from the rear and coming late on Gevrey at Limerick, there was no diminution in his ability as a jockey. His strike rate from September to December this season was 22.9%.
Davy Russell is obviously a massive asset to the Cullentra team. The experience that he has, the ability that he has, the trust that Gordon Elliott can place in him. He is the safest pair of hands, you can have absolute faith in him when he leaves the parade ring and heads for the racecourse. And the bigger the stage, the more important the safety of those hands are.
And that is not to denigrate the talents of the other professional jockeys on the Gordon Elliott team, Denis O’Regan and Jordan Gainford and Sam Ewing. Denis O’Regan is a top-class rider, as he proved once again at Fairyhouse on Saturday when he won the feature race, the Dan & Joan Moore Memorial Chase, on the Pat Foley-trained Rebel Gold. He is a multiple Grade 1-winning rider, a four-time Cheltenham Festival-winning rider.
Sam Ewing and Jordan Gainford are two hugely talented young riders. Sam Ewing had a memorable two days in Wales in October when he won the Native River Handicap Chase at Chepstow on Peregrine Run, then went to Ffos Las the following day and won the Welsh Champion Hurdle on Effernock Fizz.
Jordan Gainford has struck up a fantastic partnership with Hewick. He has ridden John Hanlon’s horse to victory in the Bet365 Gold Cup and in the Galway Plate and in the Grand National Hurdle Stakes at Far Hills in America.
And when Gordon Elliott sent him to Limerick over Christmas, he duly delivered, riding Gerri Colombe to win the Grade 1 Faugheen Chase on St Stephen’s Day, the rider’s first domestic Grade 1 win, and following up the next day on Favori De Champdou in the Grade 2 novices’ hurdle.
But put Davy Russell onto the team, onto any team, and you strengthen the team.
And the truth is, they are all needed. That’s the depth of equine talent that Gordon Elliott has put together. On Saturday, for example, Davy Russell, Denis O’Regan and Jordan Gainford all rode for Gordon Elliott at Fairyhouse, as did Jody McGarvey and Ricky Doyle and Jamie Codd in the bumper, while Sam Ewing went to Warwick to ride The Goffer for the trainer in Grade 2 Hampton Chase and Level Neverending in the Pertemps qualifier.
The Cullentra team is a team that is deep in terms of quality and in terms of quantity. We are coming into a key part of the National Hunt season now with the Dublin Racing Festival set for Leopardstown in three weeks’ time. There will be eight Grade 1 races run over the course of the weekend, and Gordon Elliott has entries in seven of them, 23 Grade 1 entries in total. And if Davy Russell end up in the winner’s enclosure after one or two of those Grade 1 races, you know that they will applaud him in again.
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