Gordon Elliott, Barry Geraghty and Charles Byrnes were among those to lead the tributes to Davy Russell, one of the finest National Hunt riders to ever pull on a pair of silks, who retired at the age of 43 after partnering Liberty Dance to victory in the Thurles feature on Sunday.
Russell will forever be remembered for partnering Elliott's Tiger Roll to successive Grand National triumphs in 2018 and 2019. Like those momentous days at Aintree, Russell signed off from the saddle with his customary wave aboard the Elliott-trained Liberty Dance in the Billy Harney Memorial Irish EBF Mares' Novice Hurdle.
The most successful jockey of all time who was still active in the weighroom, Russell earned a reputation as being one of the finest riders at Cheltenham, evident when he guided Jim Culloty's Lord Windermere to Gold Cup success in 2014.
Close friend Elliott supplied the majority of Russell's Cheltenham winners and the Cullentra House-based trainer heaped praise on the rider following his decision to retire on the spot at Thurles.
Elliott said, “The feedback he gave has always been invaluable. He has been a big part of the team here at Cullentra for the last 10 or 12 years–and he is still going to be part of the team. He's still going to have an involvement. Hopefully we will work closely with him, on what level we are just not quite sure yet, but he will still have something to do with it.”
He added, “He has been a big part of my team since I started training and he has been a friend as well as a colleague. I rode with him as an amateur. He has been as much a friend as anything else. He is a brilliant jockey and a great person. I'm sad to see him retiring but delighted to see him going out on his own terms.
“He's a brilliant jockey and a great horseman. He could do things on horses that other people couldn't. There was never anything wrong with the bottle. The body slowed down, but the bottle was 100 per cent and so it is very sad to see him go.
“He has brilliant hands and transmitted confidence to a horse, and you only have to look at what he has achieved to see what a great jockey he was. He was brilliant.”
Multiple Cheltenham festival and Grand National-winning rider Barry Geraghty shared the weigh room with Russell for the majority of his career and labelled him “a brilliant competitor and a brilliant jockey.”
Geraghty said, “He was as tough as nails in every sense, to ride against but also coming back from the injuries he's had to deal with.
“His CV speaks for itself, two Grand Nationals, a Gold Cup, multiple Cheltenham winners. He's been a multiple champion jockey in Ireland and a brilliant, brilliant jockey for years. It's great to see him finish on such a good note and he's definitely proved the longevity in him.”
Meanwhile, Byrnes, who Russell rode Solwhit and Weapon's Amnesty to major big-race victories for, described himself as “shocked” that the 43-year-old decided to call time on a wonderful career.
Byrnes said, “I'm delighted he is getting out in one piece, but shocked because as far as I could see he's riding as well, if not better, than ever. He is getting out on his own terms and as far as I'm concerned, he'd probably be the greatest of all time–but I'd be slightly biased.
“That's my opinion. He had an unbelievable pair of hands to get a horse to settle, to get a horse jumping. You could nearly say whether a horse was going to win or not by jumping the first hurdle with him.
“You knew the flow and the rhythm he was in. He was an absolute genius. He worked hard, he deserved everything he's got–he worked hard all his life.”
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