Ruby Walsh - appears on Paddy Power Podcast

Ruby Walsh on Majborough versus Sir Gino in the Arkle at Cheltenham Festival

By Sporting Life

Horse Racing

Wed February 05, 2025 · 10M ago

Ruby Walsh has given his views on this year's Arkle, in which the Willie Mullins-trained Majborough is set to take on Nicky Henderson's Sir Gino.

Both five-year-olds, Majborough was the latest to rubber-stamp his credentials with a nine-length victory in the Irish Arkle at Leopardstown on the opening day of the Dublin Racing Festival, while Sir Gino is on course to make it two from two over fences in this Saturday's Game Spirit Chase at Newbury.

Speaking on Paddy Power Media’s From The Horse’s Mouth podcast, alongside host Tom Nugent and Rory Delargy, Walsh said: "I thought Majborough was very good, he wasn’t perfect but you can’t expect... well you can expect, but [did the race fall apart a little bit?] I don’t think so, I think he broke it apart. That’s what I thought, more so than the rest fell apart.

"He wasn’t perfect – he did make a couple of niggly mistakes in the back straight – to me, he never looked like falling but they just weren’t fluent jumps. You don’t want them all to be spectacular, but you’d like him to be a bit more fluent than he was when he got in close at one or two in the back straight.

"But I think he learned through the contest - I thought he was brilliant at the third last, second last a little bit trappy, all right a fraction to his left, but when you ride wide at a track a lot of horses will jump in off the outside.

"So I wouldn’t mind that, he was very good at the last, I loved the way he powered to the line. And absolutely adored the way he went through the line and down past the stands. He wasn’t weakening at the finish.

"I thought, for a horse having his fifth ever racecourse start, I thought it was really good.

"I hoped he’d bat the ball back into Sir Gino’s court and we’d rock up in Cheltenham and say ‘which camp are you in?’"

When asked how punters might be able to compare the two, the legendary former jockey said: "Kargese maybe is the only real form line, is it?

"One beat her in Cheltenham (Majborough), one beat her in Aintree (Sir Gino) – that’s four-year-old hurdle form though, a different ball game. But people will make that argument.

"Sir Gino has probably achieved more by winning a Fighting Fifth Hurdle than Majborough did by winning a Triumph, but I think both horses look exceptional."

In this week's episode of the Cheltenham Countdown series, the team also looked back on Galopin Des Champs' Irish Gold Cup win with a view to the big one at Cheltenham, along with the current state of play in the juvenile hurdling division.

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