Mark Walsh

Until the end of the 2025/26 National Hunt season, when he was replaced by Harry Cobden, Mark Walsh held the enviable position of retained jockey the leading owner John ‘J.P’ McManus on both sides of the Irish Sea. On British soil, Kildare-born Walsh took over from Barry Geraghty in the role following his retirement on July 11, 2020 but, by that stage, he had already ridden four winners at the Cheltenham Festival.

Walsh opened his Festival account on Bleu Berry, owned by Luke McMahon and trained by Willie Mullins, in the Coral Cup Handicap Hurdle in 2018. The following year, he added two more Festival winners to his career tally, notably guiding Espoir D’Allen, owned by McManus and trained by Gavin Cromwell, to an impressive, 15-length win in the Champion Hurdle. A year later still, Walsh rode Aramax, owned by McManus and trained by Gordon Elliott, to victory in the Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle and, since succeeding Geraghty, has won the same race another three times, courtesy of Brazil (2022), Puturhandstogether (2025) and Saratoga (2026).

All told, at the time of writing, Walsh has ridden a career total 16 Cheltenham Festival winners. Espoir D’Allen aside, highlights include winning the Stayers’ Hurdle on Sire Du Berlais, trained by Elliott, in 2023, the Ryanair Chase on Fact To File, trained by Willie Mullins, in 2025 and the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Inothewayurthinkin, trained by Cromwell, also in 2025.

Inothewayurthinkin was supplemented for the Cheltenham Gold Cup by McManus, at a cost of £25,000, and duly foiled the hat-trick attempt of odds-on favourite Galopin Des Champs, trained by Willie Mullins and ridden by Paul Townend, winning readily by six lengths. Walsh said later, “I didn’t want to take him [Galopin Des Champs] on too early, because we all know how he stays up the hill, but my lad just carried me there and winged the second-last and went by him, so I just kept kicking because my lad stays all day as well.”