Ruby Walsh - "very sad" after photo emerged
Ruby Walsh - Paddy Power ambassador

Irish Grand National: Paddy Power ambassador Ruby Walsh preview


Ruby Walsh has shared his thoughts on the Fairyhouse Easter Festival on Paddy Power Media’s podcast ‘From The Horse’s Mouth’.

The former top jokey is joined by Paddy Power trader Frank Hickey in a show that looks forward to three days of superb Jumping action at the Meath venue this coming weekend.

Click here to listen to Paddy Power Media's From The Horse's Mouth Podcast

Here is Ruby’s in-depth analysis and thoughts on what to look forward to this weekend:

Ruby Walsh Boylesports Irish Grand National Preview

Novices in the Irish Grand National?

To me it’s where you start and look Frank mentioned three horses there that have been winning favourites in the last couple of years – Our Duke, Burrows Saint and Shutthefrontdoor. Well Our Duke and Burrows Saint were novices and I think it’s a race for novices – it’s that time of the year, some of them should have plenty of experience under their belt and still be ahead of the handicapper.

I would personally and always did try to ride novices in it and I would still pick novices when I’m trying to give a tip for it. I just think they are ahead of the handicapper or should be ahead of the handicapper. But look distance or fitness I mean shouldn’t be an issue for any horse at this time of the year, it’s not like you’re asking a novice whose unexposed and learning his trade to jump, go this trip in November, you have to have had at least three runs over fences to run in the race, most of them will have more than that, four maybe even five, so you’re talking about horses that have a lot of mileage under their belts and are, in theory, still novices, but they’re basically handicappers with a novice title because a lot of them won’t have run in open handicap company, they’re a little unexposed.

Coko Beach (right) wins at Navan
Coko Beach (right) wins at Navan

Now obviously Coko Beach has won the Thyestes so he is or the handicapper should have been able to assess him, Run Wild Fred was second in the Thyestes, but there’s a pile more of them in there like Espanito Bello of Barry Connell’s, just the four runs over fences, a cracking run on his last start in Navan, like he’s unexposed and could be improving, like there’s a load of novices in there and that’s why fair play if Tiger Roll takes his chance here with 11st 9lb off a rating of 163, it’s going to be a Desert Orchid-style performance if he can win.

Willie Mullins’s multiple entries in the Irish Grand National. Would Agusta Gold be the best of his?

She will and she’ll have a nice racing weight providing Tiger Roll runs cos if he comes out, Galvin is number two so it’s a rise of 9lb [Galvin came out at today’s forfeits stage]. I don’t know if they’ll go to 11st 7lb is the top weight to bring the bottom ones in or does the top weight have to go to 11st 10lb, I’m not sure of that yet – I just haven’t looked up the conditions – but I think you could be looking at a 10lb rise and if you put 10lb on to 10st 6lb of Agusta Gold, that brings her all the way to 11st 2lb so that’s a different weight on your back and it’s a completely different race so as well as Tiger Roll, from Frank’s point of view with the book whether he runs or not, how that fares, also the make up of this race really depends on whether Tiger Roll runs or not.

Willie Mullins pictured on the Cheltenham gallops
Willie Mullins - strong team

Because so many horses like you mention like Agusta Gold with 10st 6lb, Coko Beach with 10st 10lb, Run Wild Fred with 10st, I mean those horses are chucked in here if Tiger Roll runs. But all of a sudden he comes out and you put 10lb more on all of their backs and you’re looking below them again. Look Brahma Bull would have to jump better than he jumped in the Thyestes he pulled up, Cabaret Queen ran in Cheltenham in the mares’ chase last week, got hopelessly outpaced and pulled up [Cabaret Queen came out at today’s forfeits stage]., Dragon D’Estruval was tailed off in a point-to-point on his last start, he has to improve incredibly on that, Lord Royal travelled well for a long way in the four miler, the National Hunt Chase as it is now, and cut out [Lord Royal came out at today’s forfeits stage].

Salsaretta is in the mares’ chase there the day before, Saturnas if he hadn’t run in Naas you’d say yeah he has a great chance fourth in the Thyestes but he did run in the Leinster National and that was a pretty poor effort, maybe dry ground would help him [Saturnas came out at today’s forfeits stage], Robin De Carlow hasn’t run in nearly, the last time she ran she beat Put The Kettle On but that was 18 months’ ago, 500 and whatever days that is, that is good form but off that sort of a lay off – I know Willie Mullins is training her but that’ll be one hell of a training performance to win a race like this with the experience she has off that sort of a lay off.

So yeah I’d say when you look down through them Agusta Gold having her first run for Willie, she was trained by Mags Mullins, would look the one. She had a good win here in a mares’ chase in Fairyhouse in January I think it was, ran okay then in a hurdle race in Navan after that where she was fourth behind Damalisque, she’s obviously a better chaser than she was hurdler, first run for Willie Mullins – can she improve, time will tell.

Tiger Roll?

The other side of the coin is if we’re talking about Tiger Roll – the last time he’s won a chase over park fences was the 14th March, 2017. The last time he ran in the Irish National he pulled up, his last run over park fences was in Clonmel in November 2017 and he pulled up.

We’re now talking about April 2021 – now I know he’s won Grand Nationals and cross-country races and hurdles since but he hasn’t taken on birch park fences and his technique of jumping was the reason Paddy Power took him on in his first Grand National– that cost them I don’t know how much but I hear about it every now and then, how when they mention the Grand National, they all break out in a sweat when they hear the words Tiger Roll so his style of jumping, having not done it for so long has to be factored in as well.

Tiger Roll makes it a famous five at Chetenham
Tiger Roll makes it a famous five at Chetenham

And I think whether he runs here or in the Melling Chase, there is that chance with him - he gets low, that’s why he’s so good over the new Grand National fences which are two or three feet of loose spruce and why he’s so good in the cross-country races in Cheltenham which are basically laurel hedges. It suits the way he jumps and I’m not certain parkland fences have ever suited the way he jumps. [The O’Learys ready with the ‘I told you so’ if he’s pulled up due to his handicap mark] I think it’s irrelevant – I think they’re completely different races, I think the Aintree Grand National with the style of fences and cross-country fences to a parkland track - they’re different.

Look they can trot that line out if they so wish and mathematically they may well be proved right but in my own mind and in my opinion they’re two different arguments.

Anything in the Green & Gold of JP McManus that catches the eye and Ruby’s selection?

School Boy Hours maybe – I think the rest are fairly exposed. Scoir Mear is an 11-year-old, Fitzhenry was placed in the Paddy Power a couple of years’ ago, it’s quite a while since he’s managed to even win a race. Did he win a Paddy Power as well – did Barry Geraghty win a Paddy Power on him? It’s been quite a while since he’s won a race – I’m after looking back at his form here, Last Encounter 18th February 2018 was the last time I can see him winning a race, maybe he’s won one since.

But no I don’t think they jump off the page – maybe Off You Go stepping right up in trip, he won over two and a half on his last start, maybe going an extra mile will suit him. He’s a dual winner of the big handicap hurdle at Leopardstown at the Dublin Racing Festival – the Pierce – he’s won a pair of those maybe he could be the one, no there’s horses I prefer than them.

Espanito Bello ridden by Mark O'Hare
Espanito Bello ridden by Mark O'Hare

I really fancy ESPANITO BELLO – he’s the one for me. I thought when he ran into Coko Beach in Navan in February, Coko Beach had the run of the Thyestes, he was a fitter horse, Espanito Bello made a mistake at the last in Navan I think which cost him the race.

He’d beaten Coko Beach prior to that in a beginners chase at Naas, he was fourth to Janidil on his second start, he was second to Latest Exhibition on his fourth start and if you go back even to hurdles, he was second behind Court Maid last March over hurdles, I think all the way through his form in the last while has been quite strong.

I was taken by him in Navan and I think with 10st 10lb [10st 7lb] on his back, seven-year-old, Barry Connell’s horses starting to come back into form, he’s my tip against the field a week out at 16-1.

Irish Grand National - Paddy Power bet: 11/2 Tiger Roll, 7 Latest Exhibition, Sempo, 9 Agusta Gold, 10 Home By The Lee, Run Wild Fred, 11 Coko Beach, The Big Dog, 12 Court Maid, Escaria Ten, Farclas, 14 Discorama, Moyhenna, 16 Espanito Bello, Ten Ten, The Jam Man, Off You Go, 20 Brahma Bull, Discordanantly, Fitzhenry, Forza Milan, School Boy Hours, Scoir Mear, Screaming Colours, 25 Atlantic Shore, Enjoy D’Allen, Opposites Atract, 33 Brace Yourself, Dragon D’Estruval, Eurobot, Glenloe, Jerrysback, Salsaretta, Top Moon, Tout Est Permis, Whisperinthebreeze, 40 bar

Click here to listen to Paddy Power Media's From The Horse's Mouth Podcast


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