Racing: Galloping towards greatness

David Walsh's nerves remain intact, despite a long and very successful career on the racetrack.

In mid-October, 2009, David Walsh had just won the Matamata Cup on Elblitzem and took his first serious look at Lance O'Sullivan's all-time New Zealand record number of wins in the saddle - 2357.

Asked if it were possible the then 50-year-old could reach that target he said with a matter-of-fact air: "If I remain injury free, yes, it's possible."

With nine rides at today's Otago meeting that possibility might well become reality.

Walsh is six wins away from toppling the record many said would never be touched and that alone puts a special significance to today's Dunedin meeting as it goes up against Ellerslie's group one Diamond Stakes Day.

That Matamata Cup win in 2009 meant Walsh was, in his own words: "Two hundred and a few" short of the record.

David Walsh is something of an enigma. He can be opinionated, yet on most occasions he remains low key and totally without boast.

Unlike a few before him he doesn't seek the spotlight or bother to point out that his extraordinary sense of pace in a race has won the event single-handed. He leaves that for others to determine.

In decades past, timing for a jockey was a requirement. Today it's a luxury and David Walsh stands alone.

The races the 54-year-old has won in front with exquisite pacemaking are legendary. They include the 1994 Cox Plate on Solvit and the Caulfield Cup on Lomondy.

Lomondy did not lead at Caulfield, but sat outside the leader and Walsh knew exactly when to push the button a long way from home to apply maximum pressure to the opposition.

Walsh was his customary low-key self as he spoke to the Weekend Herald yesterday travelling to Dunedin from his base in Christchurch.

He explained how he got into racing in Canterbury, which was more hit and miss than a certainty.

"I enjoyed playing rugby, but my mates I played with kept getting bigger and I didn't. I was starting to get hurt and I realised that wasn't for me.

"My parents hadn't been that keen for me to enter a stable, but my grandfather pushed me into it."

Now, chasing down around 2360 winners, Walsh remains at the top of his powers, as does the only New Zealand jockey riding regularly who is older than him, Noel Harris.

Remarkably, the nerve of both men is intact.

New Zealand's other jockeys to ride more than 2000 winners are Bill Skelton 2156, David Peake 2093 and Noel Harris 2095 so far.

Walsh said he will go into today's racing as he always does, with tunnel vision "You can't go doing things differently just because you're close to a record. I've got some nice rides, but nothing I can say that is outstanding and that's the way I like it.

"When you go into a raceday thinking you'll win five or six races, that's when things go wrong. The main thing is to do your preparation, turn up and do your best."

For the record, Walsh has ridden six winners in a day on several occasions. Today would be a good time to do it again.