John Wayne made the film and Iain Duncan Smith one of the great political misjudgements by using its title but Mark Walsh will arrive at this year’s Cheltenham Festival as the Quiet Man.
The 30-year-old will hardly be a familiar face to many racegoers at Cheltenham because his 19 rides at the meeting thus far have yet to require him posing for photographers in the winner’s enclosure, although that may change.
Many jockeys get their breaks at the expense of another’s broken bones and Walsh has picked up a string of promising rides after Barry Geraghty, JP McManus’s retained rider, was ruled out through injury.
Walsh will have plenty of shots to blast that duck to smithereens including Yanworth in the Stan James Champion Hurdle and Uxizandre in the Ryanair Chase.
Walsh, who has the rare distinction of having his first rides on the Flat and jumping on the same day at Naas in 2002 and his first winner at Punchestown just seven weeks later, did not make an immediate impact thereafter.
Indeed, the 2006-07 season yielded the meagre harvest of just four winners and is best remembered for making headlines mostly with a 21-day suspension under the “non-trier” rules on the McManus-owned Good Company, a chastening experience for any young jockey, especially one who avoids the limelight.
Walsh’s reaction was to put his head down and persevere, an attitude that clearly impressed McManus who began employing him more and his stock began rising by riding the majority of the owners runners in Ireland while Sir Anthony McCoy held the No1 job.
It perhaps sums up Walsh that when McCoy retired his name was not at the top of anyone’s list as the replacement. He was duly passed over for the top slot in favour of Geraghty but the background appears to suit the man from Clane, County Kildare.
He has been an infrequent visitor to Britain having ridden only three winners from 44 rides since 2004 when he won a handicap hurdle at Aintree as a 7lb claimer.
He will deftly and politely sidestep interview requests preferring to keep things “low-key” and “under the radar” perhaps remembering one of McManus’s lines that "imagine all the fish in the world that'd be alive if they'd learned to keep their mouths shut."
When Walsh does speak, he credits Christy Roche, the former champion Flat jockey and trainer, with helping his career. Walsh began riding out with local trainer Peter McCreery until he was old enough to leave school and join Roche full-time.
“I owe Christy Roche an awful lot,” the jockey said. “He was training a lot of JP’s horses, and he had no problem putting me up, even though I was just a young fellow. If it wasn’t for Christy, I’m sure I wouldn’t be getting the opportunities that I am now getting on JP’s horses.”
Now he is getting some of the biggest opportunities of his career and this could prove to be the moment for the quiet man.
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