Ruby Walsh - favours Gaelic Warrior again

Ruby Walsh - impressed with Mighty Park

Sky Bet Supreme preview: Ruby Walsh tips

By Sporting Life

Horse Racing

Wed February 18, 2026 · 2h ago

Ruby Walsh feels Old Park Star is a worthy favourite for the Sky Bet Supreme but there's a Willie Mullins runner he expects to go well at a price.

Nicky Henderson's charge leapt to the head of the betting with a clear-cut success in the Sky Bet Rossington Main at Haydock and while impressed with him, the pundit feels there are dangers lurking at Closutton.

Speaking on Paddy Power Media’s ‘From The Horse’s Mouth’ podcast ‘Cheltenham Countdown’ he said: "Leader d’Allier I think at a price – he was disappointing in a maiden hurdle at Christmas, but I thought he was much better at Punchestown and I loved the way he went through the line and went half-way back to Naas to pull him up! I think he’s a big price and he’ll put up a good performance.

"I wish I knew where Mighty Park was going, but Old Park Star sets the standard and he’s dead straightforward, but probably Leader d’Allier at a price and I was really impressed with Sober Glory at Newbury too.

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"I thought he was really good, I think it’s a deep Supreme, I think it’s a belting contest and I think when you look at Cheltenham even in the past, even Sober maybe who won the Moscow Flyer, he needs to jump quicker.

"But he’s starting to come a little bit, there’s a question mark over him in jumping as well too, but I think when you look at the way Tuesday in Cheltenham can shape up, bookmakers going at each other on Tuesday morning, I think there’ll be great value in this Supreme."

Walsh excited by Mighty Park

And Walsh warned against underestimating Mighty Park wherever he turns up at Cheltenham.

"He was mightily impressive on debut. He was a non-runner at Christmas and then pulled out in Fairyhouse a fortnight later.

"Had he run at Christmas, he probably would have been back at the DRF and he’d be going here hopefully not as just a maiden winner. But he’s a very, very good horse, Willie loves him, he’s compared him to Faugheen I think last week or Faugheen-esque or something like that.

"He’s a hell of a good racehorse, but whether he goes two miles or two and a half miles I don’t know. I think he can – I kind of thought watching him in Limerick where he looked and you thought the way he won and he came through ‘God yeah a bit further would really suit him’."

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And King Rasko Grey, a close-up third in the Grade One two-mile Tattersalls Ireland Novice Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival, is another horse Walsh has plenty of time for. But again his target is unknown right now.

"I don’t know and I think Willie is very undecided as well. He did look in Limerick like yeah maybe going a bit further would suit him, but when you watched him with Talk The Talk and Ballyfad at Leopardstown, he was the most inexperienced of the three and he was the one that ultimately faded the last 25 yards," he said.

"But he was the least experienced of the three as well so he’s entitled to improve for that. He’s a good jumper, but I wonder, it wouldn’t surprise me if he went up a little bit in trip, but then again a lot will depend on where Mighty Park is going and what gets pushed back, I suppose, to the Supreme then or decides ‘you know what we won’t pitch him in against him, we’ll give them a chance in the Supreme’."