Super jockey Ruby Walsh proved he is still quick out of the stalls when he saw his car roll past his window while he was doing a podcast.
The racing ace turned pundit was trying to pick winners for the opening day of the Grand National meeting at Aintree today when he suddenly saw his motor go by.
He told Paddy Power podcast host Patrick Kennelly: “I’m sorry PK, I know this is going on YouTube but my car has just gone by the window and there shouldn’t be anybody here driving it.”
Ruby tore off his headphones, dived out of his chair and raced out of his home in Ireland – leaving podcast host Patrick and fellow guest Rory Delargy in stitches.
Patrick told the audience: “So someone has either stolen Ruby’s car or he’s left the handbrake off or his children have just decided to take it upon themselves to cause him a bit of a heart attack.”
When Ruby, 46, returned moments later Patrick asked: “He’s back. You have to tell us what happened. Was someone in the car?”
The jockey, who won two Grand Nationals and two Cheltenham Gold Cups in a glittering career, said: “My 16-year-old was learning to drive – apparently teaching herself.”
Paddy Power posted the footage on X captioned: “Ruby Walsh today, learning about the perils of recording Aintree podcasts from home…”
Ruby told us that his 16-year-old daughter Isabelle could one day follow in racing trailblazer Rachael Blackmore’s footsteps after expressing an interest in becoming a jockey.
His three other daughters Elsa, 14, Gemma, 11, and Erica, eight, are riding ponies and could form an unbeatable Walsh dynasty.
“I most certainly would not stop them,” he told the Daily Star.
“I had an incredible career as a jockey and if any one of the four of them chooses to do that I would give them as much help as I possibly can.
“Will I encourage any one of them or try and drive anyone down that road? No. That will have to be a decision they make themselves.
“They will have to want it because the work involved – you have to love it. You won’t get to the top with someone pushing you. You have to want to get there yourself.
“They’re good riders. And their mother has ensured that they have good ponies and good horses.
“They love it.
“It’s a great childhood to have horses – a privileged one I suppose.
“But It’s a great childhood because they have to be responsible for their own ponies and their own horses and the discipline that’s required in looking after them.
“They have to be mucked out and exercised and the tack has to be cleaned – you know where they are. It’s a brilliant childhood…from a parents’ point of view anyway.”