Freezer got Mark Walsh to Punchestown for Jezki | Irish Sun
FREEZER therapy has made Mark Walsh hot property this week and the Ladbrokes World Series Hurdle winner is on one last favourite today as the season draws to a close at Punchestown.Back in February, Walsh was more than 10 winners clear of Ruby Walsh (no relation), who will be crowned champion jockey this afternoon.
However, he broke his left arm in a fall at Thurles and was not fit to return to racing until last weekend. Walsh rides the majority of prolific owner JP McManus’s horses that are based in Ireland and had a lot to look forward to as Punchestown loomed, with number one ride AP McCoy now retired.
Pulling out all the stops, Walsh turned to cryotherapy to speed up his healing. The treatment is well-known in sporting circles and requires patients to spend short periods in cold chambers, sometimes enduring temperatures as low as -110C. It’s taking the ice bath or cold pack to the extreme - and it worked.
Walsh returned to action at Tipperary last weekend and has achieved two wins since.
His agent Garry Cribbin, also responsible for the new champion conditional jockey Johnny Burke, said: “It’s great to see him end the season on a high. All his hard work, working on his fitness to get back from that injury has paid off. We have to thank Whites Hotel’s cryotherapy unit. Using that facility made a huge difference and they were very good to him.
“After Jacksonslady won the handicap chase at Punchestown on Thursday, I was happy. That was job done as, going into this week, I just wanted him to get a winner to end the season on a high after the disappointment of the injury and what that meant for his championship hopes.
But when Jezki won as well, and in a race like that, it was unreal. What a day to be at the races.”
He added: “Mark just proved that he’s up to it on the big day and fitness-wise he was 100 per cent; you know he wouldn’t have ridden this week if he wasn’t 100 per cent right. It wouldn’t have been worth it.
“He’s going there with great chances again today. He rides in both Grade 1s and has Sort It Out and Gallant Oscar too.”
The latter is favourite for the 3m1f handicap chase after finished third in a similar race at Cheltenham last month and fourth in the Thyestes Chase at Gowran Park. McManus only bought him after his Cheltenham outing, so this will be Walsh’s first ride on the nine-year-old and a big opportunity to take his Punchestown tally to three.
Cribbin is “gutted” that Walsh did not manage to hang on to his lead in the champion jockey title race, but believes the career-ending injuries that colleagues Robbie McNamara and Davy Condon have suffered this season put that into perspective.
“I’m absolutely delighted [to see him finish second],” he said. “Looking at the injuries Robbie McNamara and Davy Condon have got, to finish the season the way Mark has makes us very grateful. You couldn’t be disappointed, we’re second to Ruby Walsh and without that injury he might have won the title. At the same time, it’s great to come back and for him to finish with that win in the Ladbrokes World Series Hurdle on Jezki.
“I know he’s very thankful to Mr McManus for giving him the opportunity to ride him on such a big day.”
Cribbin is responsible for one of the titles that will be handed down today, champion conditional, and he remembers the exact conversation with Johnny Burke, this season’s sensation, that led to him leaving the amateur ranks.
“I had high hopes he could be champion conditional,” said Cribbin. “But to ride a Grade 1 winner at Leopardstown and Aintree, finish third in an Irish National, win the Midlands National at Uttoxeter, and finish second in the Scottish National and third in the Scottish Champion Hurdle, not to mention third in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival was something else.
“For his first season as a professional, that’s incredible and he’s as level-headed; nothing goes to his head, he’s so relaxed and he’s the same chap that I met at Punchestown last time and talked to about turning professional.
“He'd won the Goffs Land Rover bumper for Willie Mullins and I told him to go for it and don’t look back. That’s what he’s done.”
