The last time he rode in the United States, Ruby Walsh had the task of trying to beat Irv Naylor's Rawnaq {Azamour [Ire]} in the $200,000 Calvin Houghland GI Iroquois. The leading Irish jockey did his best, but he did not get the job done.
On Saturday, Walsh will be back in the States with a new assignment. His task will be getting Rawnaq to the finish line first in the $350,000 GI Grand National, America's richest steeplechase race. It's the feature race of a $700,000, seven-race, all-steeplechase program at Far Hills, N.J.
Walsh drew the assignment on the Grand National's favorite (Far Hills has no wagering this year but will in 2017) when regular jockey Jack Doyle had a fall at Belmont Park Sept. 22 and sustained a fractured pelvis and tailbone.
Naylor and trainer Cyril Murphy then reached across the Atlantic Ocean to secure Walsh, who has Ireland's champion jump jockey for the 10th time last season. The 2 5/8-mile Grand National will be Rawnaq's first jumps start since his Iroquois win.
In the Iroquois, Walsh rode Nichols Canyon, one of two Irish invaders, and hectored Rawnaq for more than two miles before passing the baton to stablemate Shaneshill. But Rawnaq laid his body down in the stretch and won by a neck, with Nichols Canyon finishing third.
The May 14 victory in Nashville marked Rawnaq as the year's leading steeplechase horse by a wide margin, and he again has attracted overseas competitors, most notably Robert Aplin's Sharp Rise (Ire) {Croco Rouge [Ire]}, a five-time winner this year for trainer Charlie Longsdon.
Rawnaq's principal domestic challenger will be Bruton Street-US's Scorpiancer (Ire) {Scorpion [Ire]}, who finally lived up to his promise and collected his first Grade I victory in Belmont's Lonesome Glory Handicap, the race in which Doyle was injured.
Trained by Jack Fisher and ridden by Sean McDermott, Scorpiancer has experience over the Far Hills course. A year ago, he won Far Hills' Foxbrook Champion Hurdle Novice Stakes. Novices are horses in their first seasons of racing over fences.
Rawnaq finished third in last year's Grand National to Naylor's Dawalan (Fr) {Azamour [Ire]}, who subsequently was voted the Eclipse Award as 2015's champion steeplechase horse.
Far Hills' entire race card will be broadcast by live video streaming on two websites, farhillsrace.org and nationalsteeplechase.com.
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