12th March 2009 - FINISH LINE - WORLD HURDLE - Brough Scott

FINISH LINE - WORLD HURDLE

It’s not just a long way, it’s a long climb, the longest in the game. The 350 yards from the final flight to the World Hurdle finish line is Cheltenham’s road of truth. Looking down from the winning post we could see that Kasbah Bliss had already owned up to inadequacy, but for Big Buck’s and Punchestowns there was a final argument to settle.

If you walk it, you will get the picture. On the New Course, used yesterday, the final hurdle is between the last two fences, 20 yards further back than on the Old Course. You then run a hundred yards along the rail separating the chase course before a taped-off gap opens to your left where the runners would have swung off away from the stands on the first circuit. Somewhere up ahead is the little apology of a jam stick, somewhere beneath you, there would be a tired horse to drive or, even more importantly in Big Bucks case, to steer.

For huge hearted and talented though he may be, this is a clumsy yoke - Sam Thomas remembers that only too well from the last fence in the Hennessy. Yesterday, it was the attack of Punchestowns and the poise of Kasbah Bliss, not the rather laboured progress of the Big Buck’s white noseband, that took the eye all the way from the top of the hill. Very soon the wizened little muscle man that is Christophe Pieux was pumping fruitlessly on the favourite and as Geraghty and Punchestown took over Walsh was getting a response but was having to row Big Buck’s along as if the tide was against him.

Over this distance and at yesterday’s strong gallop the closing stage are reduced almost to slow motion. Coming in to the last Big Buck’s looked as if he had the legs of Punchestown only to galumph through the hurdle. As he staggered to the left of our head-on vantage point, you wondered whether he would have the strength to outgun his rival. The next thirty seconds were a heroic, deep dig of an answer from horse and man.

For the first fifty yards Ruby just tried to get his partner balanced. He then pulled his whip out in his left hand as both leaders rolled away towards the far rail only to then find Big Buck’s hanging the other way as he drove past Punchestown. Some jockeys have trouble changing the whip from one side to the other. With Walsh it goes from left to right and back again with almost cardsharp dexterity. Except this was much slower and harder.

You could see Big Buck’s was winning but this finish line would not be easily gained. Some mornings you will find it marked with the ashes of deceased punters who wanted it as a final resting place. To public knowledge Ruby’s will has as yet made no such declaration, but if he continues like this it might be a suitable, if hopefully far distant burial ground.

For this week it has been others’ hopes that he has turned to ashes. For the last five strides the whip was switched back into the left hand and then Big Buck’s white nose band lumbered past and Ruby was back into the glory routine. First a big, big slap on to his horse’s neck, then a deliberate seeking out to handshake beaten rivals, then the Channel 4 interview, and finally the climactic, arm-swept-aloft salute to the stands as the punters roar.

As Walsh walked away from us his back was silhouetted against the long climb from the last hurdle with the northern edge of Cleeve Hill closing off the frame. He held out his hand, palm outspread to signal his fifth winner of the meeting. Ruby also knows the darkness of the valleys, but this is the mountain top.