Davy Russell hits back at O'Leary's retirement remarks

Davy Russell has responded to Gigginstown owner Michael O'Leary's claims the jockey made a mistake in returning to the saddle.

Russell called time on a lengthy career back in December after partnering the Gordon Elliott-trained Liberty Dance to victory at Thurles.

However when Jack Kennedy broke his leg at Naas in mid-January, Elliott lured Russell out of retirement to fill the void. The 43-year-old is on a number of Elliott's leading horses at the Cheltenham Festival this week.

On Wednesday, O'Leary said in an interview with ITV Racing: "He'd retired and, personally, I wish he’d stayed retired. He has a young family with young children and at a certain point in time you should put your family first and not your riding career.

"When you get out at that age in your early 40s you don’t bounce, you don’t mend the way you did before, particularly if you’re married and you have children you put your family first.

"He’s had a glorious career and he has nothing to achieve by coming back and I don’t think he should’ve come out of retirement."

Russell responded to those comments on Thursday, telling ITV: "I have about as much respect for Michael O'Leary’s opinion as he has for my opinion, do you know what I mean?

"I didn’t see any father of the year awards being thrown out yet. I’m happy enough with my responsibilities at home. That’s about as much as that I'd like to... I said it yesterday and that’s about it."

He's aboard Mighty Potter on Thursday's Turners Novices’ Chase and the O'Leary-owned Fury Road in the Ryanair Chase.

Follow a live blog every day of the Cheltenham Festival from 1pm on RTÉ.ie/sport and RTÉ News app