RUBY WALSH banished months of frustration to start the Cheltenham Festival with a winner as Al Ferof landed the opening race, the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.
Walsh has been on the sidelines since early November with a broken leg and only secured his first winner since his return at Sandown on Saturday.
But his triumphant fist into the air after passing the winner post on Paul Nicholls’ grey was both joy and relief.
His relief was shared by the bookmakers who saw a third short-priced favourite in 7-4 shot Cue Card beaten just as Cousin Vinny and Dunguib has been in the past two Festival openers
Nicholls’ six-year-old powered past three rivals after the final hurdle to beat Spirit Son (5-1) two lengths. Al Ferof’s stablemate Sprinter Sacre (11-1) claimed third with favourite Cue Card back in fourth.
A delighted Walsh said: “I went into the ring expecting Paul to tell me to ride him in the first three, but he said no, give him time to settle and come home and he was right.
“They went a good gallop, the ground was a bit dead and he picked up when I really needed him to. He jumped super.
“It’s great to be back, a lot of people have helped me including my family.” Winning trainer Paul Nicholls added: “You need to stay in this race - Noland won it for us a few years ago.
"Cue Card beat him last year in the Bumper when we gave him weight.
“This is the first time I’ve ever had the horse right and it was a brilliant ride. It’s great for Ruby.
“We’ve had a few get beat in the last fortnight and some people were questioning our form, but all I was concentrating on was getting the horses right for this week.
“If they all go like that we’ll be laughing. To star like that takes the pressure off and it’s amazing for Ruby to be able to do that. It’s brilliant for him.”
Owner John Hales said: “I thought we were running for fourth place, then I thought we’d got third and then it all happened, thanks to Ruby.
“His judgement of pace was unbelievable. He just took them and won it well.
“Someone said to me we should go for the two-and-a-half-mile novice, but you can’t get better than that.”
