Davy Russell readies for two live tilts at adding to Cheltenham win tally

N ot too long after his sudden retirement from race-riding at Thurles in December, Davy Russell agreed to an interview with Joe Molloy from the Irish radio station Newstalk. A good talker sitting down with an even better listener, it was always going to make for an interesting chat. Straight off the bat, the former jockey explained he had been of a mind to quit for a while but had been forced to wait a couple of days before the winner he wanted to go out on materialised in Liberty Dance.

At the end of a wide-ranging career retrospective that took in the many highs and lows of more than two decades spent in the saddle, Molloy wrapped up proceedings, joking that it would come as no surprise to see his interviewee back in action at another Cheltenham Festival at some point in the future. “Ah no, that’s it!” insisted Russell, making it clear that his decision was made and he had wanted to “get out before he fell out of love with the game”. At 43 years of age and having already defied expectations by returning from a broken neck sustained in a heavy fall at Limerick three years ago, the impression given was that this weight room elder saw no point in pushing his luck.

Life has been good to Russell in the intervening months, albeit proving the famous truism that it’s what happens when you’re making, or have already made other plans. Following a retirement that was shorter than many people’s holidays, he announced he would be returning to the day job to help out trainer Gordon Elliott and his owners following the news that the trainer’s luckless lead jockey Jack Kennedy had broken his leg.

Having drawn two blanks at Fairyhouse on his first day back, Russell returned to the winners’ enclosure the following day at Punchestown,