Former Irish Grand National winning jockey Katie Walsh has ruled out becoming a trainer.

Walsh enjoyed an incredible career as a jockey, becoming only the third female rider to land the Irish National when successful with Thunder And Roses in 2015. She also registered two Cheltenham Festival winners and placed in the Aintree Grand National.

Daughter to Ted Walsh, sister to Ruby Walsh and married to trainer Ross O’Sullivan, Katie told Off The Ball's Friday Night Racing that she has no intention of training horses herself in the future.

"Oh no," she said when asked about a possible career change by Ger Gilroy. "I have the upmost respect for them and I've seen every side of it.

"I've seen they highs, and there's plenty of highs, but I've seen the lows, and they are low. Horses getting injured, owners getting annoyed after a bad result.

"As a jockey, you set out to be the best you can. At the end of the day you get the responsibility to take the ride...I go out there and give the horse a bad ride then I go home and I'm back out the next day.

"While the trainer has to deal with the owners and the disappointment after the expectation and that happens an awful lot."

Morgan Treacy, INPHO

Raising funds for Barretstown

Walsh is also throwing her support behind and upcoming fundraiser at Naas racecourse for children’s charity, Barretstown who have lost over €1 million fundraising revenue due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Based in Ballymore Eustace in County Kildare, the mission at Barretstown is to rebuild the lives of children affected by serious illness and their families, through life changing therapeutic recreation programmes in a safe, fun and supportive environment.

"The work they do up there is phenomenal," Walsh said. "Naas racecourse is only five minutes from there and it's really lovely to get involved in this. It's a fantastic cause.

"They have to find six million Euro every year - and they're down a million already because of the impact of the COVID pandemic.

Each individual donation will be placed in a draw and assigned a horse in the €300,000 Irish EBF Ballyhane Stakes, the richest race at Naas Racecourse, on Bank Holiday Monday August 2nd.

The person assigned to the winning horse will walk away with a €5,000 holiday voucher from Hannon Travel.

The JustGiving page is now live at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/racingforbarretstown where people can make their donations.

The draw for the 24 names, who will be assigned a horse in the race, will be made on Friday July 30th.

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