Ruby Walsh Returns To Win First Race of 2011 Cheltenham Festival

Tagged under: Cheltenham Festival

Bookmakers took a huge collective sigh of relief as hot favourite Cue Card could only manage 4th in the Supreme Novice Hurdle at Cheltenham , the opening race of the 2011 Festival .
Ruby Walsh who has been sidelined for much of the season rode a terrific race on the Paul Nicholl's trained Al Ferof to win by two lengths after overpowering his rivals up the Cheltenham hill .
At odds of 10/1 , Al Ferof was a fantastic start to the meeting for the Irish jockey who has such a fantastic record at Cheltenham in recent years . Following the race Walsh was full of praise for the grey six year old who finished 2nd to Cue Card in last season's Champion Bumper at the Festival meeting :"They went a good gallop, the ground was a bit dead and he picked up when I really needed him to. He jumped super."
Trainer Paul Nicholl's was triumphantly punching the air as Al Ferof crossed the winning line and was full of praise for his stable jockey :"This is the first time I've ever had the horse right and it was a brilliant ride. It's great for Ruby."

The Nicholl's / Walsh partnership are well fancied to win many of this week's Championship races at Cheltenham with Master Minded in the Champion Chase tomorrow , Big Bucks in Thursday's World Hurdle and of course Kauto Star and Denman in the Cheltenham Gold Cup . A delighted Nicholl's said "If they all go like that we'll be laughing. To start like that takes the pressure off and it's amazing for Ruby to be able to do that. It's brilliant for him."

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