Ruby Walsh, Barry Geraghty and Davy Russell are all the same age – 43. Walsh retired from the weighroom in May 2019 and Geraghty hung up his boots in July 2020.

Russell, probably the most injury-prone and heaviest of the trio, kept going.

For the past two years, the rumours circulated every couple of months.

“I hear Davy is going to retire if he wins at Cheltenham.”

“Be ready for an announcement if Davy wins the Grand National.”

But the Youghal man likes to write his own script and he chose last Sunday at Thurles as the perfect occasion for him to bow out.

Yes, there had been more rumours in the preceding days. It was said that Davy would retire if he rode a winner at Navan on the Sunday.

But we had heard this a few times before and when Navan was cancelled due to frost, we didn’t think Davy would switch to Thurles, which itself was only passed fit to race on Sunday morning.

Hot favourite

At Thurles, Davy’s great supporter Gordon Elliott provided him with a hot favourite named Liberty Dance and they made all the running to win easily.

We didn’t really give it much heed until Davy stopped on the way back to the parade ring to pose for a series of photos, doing that ‘flappy hands’ thing he reserves for big moments .

This isn’t normal for a little race at Thurles. Then up pops Davy’s wife Edelle. She gives her hero a big hug and leads in the horse herself instead of the winning owner.

Ah here, there is something major going on!

Golden era

Other jockeys and trainers rush over to offer congratulations and Davy’s five children suddenly appear in the winner’s enclosure, wearing their Sunday best.

Okay, this is really happening. Davy Russell is retiring.

And so ended a golden era for Irish jump racing. Those warriors of the weighroom who dominated the National Hunt scene for over 20 years have departed the stage.

Davy rode over 1,500 winners in his career, not as many as Geraghty (1,900) or Walsh (2,700) but Davy had a lot of quality in there.

At the end of a prepared statement, Davy said: “Of course, I’m sad to be giving up something I’ve been lucky enough to have called a job for so long, but the truth is, I’ve never actually worked a day in my life.”

Raw talent

The next chapter is already being written. Paul Townend, Jack Kennedy, Rachael Blackmore, Danny Mullins and Mark Walsh take a step forward to become our senior riders, and they are not a bad bunch.

What will Davy do next? He is already a regular fixture at bloodstock sales and it is easy to see him carving out a niche for himself as someone who can spot raw talent and advise the bigger owners and trainers which horses to buy. The most important thing is that he has got out of race-riding in one piece and on his own terms. As he knows only too well, not every jockey is that fortunate.

DAVY RUSSELL IN NUMBERS

2 – Aintree Grand Nationals

3 – Champion jockey titles

23 – Years as a jockey

25 – Cheltenham winners

43 – Years of age

58 – Grade 1 winners

1,579 – Career winners