Ahead of the Dublin Racing Festival this weekend, Ruby Walsh admits that equine legend Florida Pearl was his "nemesis".
The famed racehorse won what is now the Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup, Saturday's feature race at Leopardstown, a record four times (1999, 2000, 2001 and 2004) in the hands of three different jockeys.
But Ruby wasn’t one of them, having been forced to miss his chance through injury, leaving the door open for Paul Carberry to take the ride in a series of events that Walsh admits will stick with him forever.
The two jockeys were reunited to look back at some of the most famous finishes in the race for Paddy Power’s Dublin Racing Festival Rewind show, available to view in full below.
However, when Carberry couldn’t quite recall how he ended up getting the ride on the defending champion Florida Pearl in 2000, who had won the race one year earlier for Richard Dunwoody, Ruby was quick to jump in and remind him.
"I’ll tell you exactly how you got the ride," said Walsh.
"Richard Dunwoody rode him as a bumper horse and then as a novice chaser. Then he retired. And I remember this well because I was in Willie Mullins’, obviously, and I went to Pardubice (Czech Republic) to ride Risk of Thunder in the Pardubicka. But I broke my leg on a horse called Shannon Fountain before the race off a running rail – the rails were disjointed, and the horse was lying in on top of the rail. He wouldn’t get off it. I hit the rail square and broke my (shin) bone right in the middle.
"I should have been riding him (Florida Pearl) but two weeks later, Paul Carberry rode him in Down Royal (winning the JNWine.com Champion Chase) and kept the ride on him. I wasn’t even back riding when he won on him in Leopardstown. But I remember clearly how Paul Carberry got the ride on Florida Pearl!"
He continues: "I rode him four times without winning on him. I think I’m probably the only one who never won on him! He (Florida Pearl) was definitely my nemesis, there’s no doubt about that.
"I was second on him in a King George and second on him in a John Durkan. I just never clicked with him."
Six years after winning the Irish Gold Cup on Florida Pearl, Carberry went on to win it again on board Beef Of Salmon in 2006 for trainer Michael Hourigan.
Ruby finally got glory in the race, winning it three times in all, on board Neptune Collonges (2009), Quel Esprit (2012) and Bellshill (2019).
For all of the latest betting on the Dublin Racing Festival this weekend, click here.
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