Horse racing: Ruby Walsh aims at Irish jockeys' title
Saturday 21 March 2015 15:16, UK
Ruby Walsh plans to step up his pursuit of a 10th Irish jockeys' championship crown.
Walsh currently trails the injured Mark Walsh and Paul Townend in the table, but intends to give it his best shot of retaining a title he won last season.
He told the Irish Examiner: "I suppose it is the time to start thinking about the possibility of chasing the champion jockeys' title, too.
"I'm in shouting distance so I will give it a go now.
"I was out for four months at the beginning of the season when I had the operation on my shoulder, having held off on it until June so I could ride in Punchestown and Auteuil.
"That gave me a little bit of an uphill climb but I am only six winners behind the unfortunate Mark Walsh, who broke his arm at the end of February, and just two in arrears of Paul Townend.
"If I got a little bit of luck in the next three or four weeks, I would have a good chance.
"But things will have to happen."
Walsh also gave an update on Annie Power, raising the possibility of her running at Aintree and at Punchestown this spring.
Willie Mullins' seven-year-old mare broke the hearts of millions of punters when she suffered a last-flight fall in the OLBG Mares' Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.
But having returned from those exertions unscathed, her regular jockey suggested she could still have two more runs this spring.
"Annie Power seems really well with no ill effects from her fall, so there's a chance that she could do both Aintree and Punchestown," he said.
"She seems 100 per cent."
