You didn’t want to approach Davy Russell before a race. He spurned selfies with owners and didn’t talk to the lad or lass leading up because he was ‘in the zone’ – his mind focused totally on the race ahead. Yes, in Davy Russell: My Autobiography (Eriu, £20), written with the knowledgeable Donn McClean, we get the stories of his two Grand National victories on Tiger Roll, his Gold Cup success on Lord Windermere and his years as Ireland’s champion jockey. But it is his reflections on race-riding which make it my racing read of the year.
Homework would have been done – Ruby’s horse goes forward, Barry’s horse jumps to the left, Paul’s horse might not stay: ‘You know in your head what you want to do but you also have all the information so that you can change as things change around you. You do it by instinct because you have all the knowledge. You have to react quickly. If you have to think about things before you can decide what to do it’s too late. The opportunity is gone. The race is over.’
For me, Davy was as good a Cheltenham jockey as we’ve ever seen. His was a quiet style, not pushing all the way but ‘trying to convince a horse he wanted to run for me’. ‘I wasn’t riding to be seen to be trying to achieve the best possible position. I was riding to actually try to achieve the best possible position… You burst the horse, you run out of petrol, he won’t finish.
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