The Ruby Walsh fact file
1979 – Ruby Walsh was born on 14 May in Kill, County Kildare, Ireland, the second child, and eldest son, of former champion amateur jockey and now trainer and broadcaster Ted Walsh, and wife Helen
1995 – rode his first winner in July
1996/97 – champion Irish amateur jockey for the first of two times, aged 18
1998 – rode the first of his 59 winners at the Cheltenham Festival on Alexander Banquet in the Champion Bumbper; he would be top jockey at the Festival 11 times
1998/99 – rode as a professional jockey
1999 – broke his leg in the Pardubice in the Czech Republic, and broke the same leg while schooling a horse and was out of action for five months
2000 – won the Grand National on Papilon, trained by his father, at the age of 20
2000 – won the first of three Irish Grand Nationals on Commanche Court, again trained by his father
2000/01 – was the Irish champion jump jockey for the first of 12 times
2001 – won the first of two Whitbread Gold Cups on Ad Hoc, the second in 2003 when it was the Attheraces Gold Cup
2003 – won the first of two Hennessy Gold Cups, on Strong Flow, with Denman his second winner in 2009
2004 – won the Queen Mother Champion Chase on Azertyuiop, and won the race again 2008 and 2009 on Master Minded
2004/05 – won the Irish Grand National on Numbersixvalverde, the Welsh National on Silver Birch, and Hedgehunter in the Grand National at Aintree; he missed out winning the Scottish National when beaten a short-head riding Cornish Rebel
2006 – married Gillian Doran in July 2006; they now have four daughters
2006 – won the Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown and the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Kauto Star
2006/07 – rode 200 winners in Britain and Ireland, and did the same the following season
2007 – in January recorded the fastest ever century of winners in Irish jumps racing
2007 – he again won the King George on Kauto Star, and followed up in 2008 2009 and 2011, winning the latter by 36 lengths
2007 – won the first of two Cheltenham Gold Cups on Kauto Star, winning again in 2009
2008 – rode his 1,000th Irish winner
2008 – a fall at Cheltenham meant Walsh had to have his spleen removed but he was back racing within a month
2009 – rode a record-breaking seven winners and the Cheltenham Festival, a feat he repeated in 2016
2010 – broke the record for the number of wins at the Cheltenham Festival
2013 – Walsh ended his partnership with trainer Paul Nicholls and reduced the number of times he rode in Britain
2015 – won the Australian Grand National on Bashboy
2016 – rode his 2,500th winner on Au Quart De Tour at Gowran Park on 20 January
2017 – broke his right leg in a fall in November at Punchestown and was out of action for until March the follow year; 12 months after his return he aggravated the injury at the Cheltenham Festival
2018 – became the winningmost jockey at the Cheltenham Festival with 58 wins, a total he added to with one more victory
2019– rode Kemboy to victory in the Punchestown Gold Cup on 1 May and announced his retirement with immediate effect, aged 39, after having won 2,756 races in Britain and Ireland
