Jockey Davy Russell says he and Michael O’Leary remain ‘the best of friends’

Russell (43) shocked the racing world in December when he called time on his illustrious career after winning on Gordon Elliott’s Liberty Dance at Thurles.

However, he performed a U-turn when Jack Kennedy, stable jockey to trainer Gordon Elliott, broke his leg, meaning he would miss many of the spring festivals.

The three-time Irish Champion Jockey confirmed in mid-January that he would return to ride for Elliott until Kennedy was fit once again.

He announced afterwards that his temporary comeback would extend no further than Aintree’s Grand National.

In an interview with ITV Racing at Cheltenham in March, O’Leary said the Irish jockey had “nothing to achieve by coming back”.

“He’d retired and, personally, I wish he’d stayed retired. He has a young family with young children and at a certain point in time you should put your family first and not your riding career,” O’Leary said in the TV interview.

“When you get out at that age in your early 40s you don’t bounce, you don’t mend the way you did before. Particularly if you’re married and you have children: you put your family first.

“He’s had a glorious career and he has nothing to achieve by coming back and I don’t think he should’ve come out of retirement.”

In response, Russell told ITV Racing the following day: “I have about as much respect for Michael O’Leary’s opinion as he has for my opinion.”

Speaking to RTÉ Racing this evening, Russell said it was water under the bridge.

“I don’t know why he said it or why he felt that he had to just dig in. I don’t know what I done to deserve it,” he said.

“I gave it my all every single day I went out, whether it was taken up in the wrong aspect, I don’t know – it's all done.

“Michael has been like that all the way through and that’s his way. It doesn’t upset me, I rose to it, I shouldn’t have and that’s just Michael. We will remain the best of friends.

“We’ve been through way better times to fall out over something like that. That’s the way life goes.”

Russell said he was “delighted” to be asked to come back by Elliott and finish his career on a high.

“I came back, and I got a fall, the simplest fall in the world. I broke ribs and different bits and that just took its toll,” he said.

“I got back, I felt fine the first two days of Cheltenham, I rode away fine. But then just the pain kept going and going and I couldn’t take it anymore.

“I was happy enough to finish up, I was disappointed, I had been to Cheltenham and not rode winners in the past. I’m a big boy, I was able to handle it.

“It ended on such a fabulous note in Thurles and then it was going to end on such a poor note in Cheltenham.

“I had a marvellous career, and I rode some very good horses. And I’ll be honest with you, it felt brilliant in Aintree. I loved it, Gerri Colombe, what a master horse to ride. It was just a marvellous feeling, I didn’t have to move on him the whole way, he done everything for me."