Derek O’Connor was ‘the Tiger Woods of amateur riders’, says Ted Walsh

Ted Walsh has called Derek O’Connor “the Tiger Woods of amateur riders” after the 43-year-old announced his retirement on Sunday.

O’Connor retires as the most successful point-to-point rider of all time, with nearly 1,500 point-to-point winners and 12 titles. He also rode more than 250 winners under rules, including six at the Cheltenham Festival.

‘He made it look simple’

“It’s like a lot of top people in any sport. He made it look simple, and it’s anything but simple,” Walsh told Nick Luck. “You watch Derek O’Connor and you say to yourself, I could do that. He’s not doing anything. He’s just sitting quiet and the horses jump through for him.”

“I can remember back to the early ’60s, right through to the present day, and I would say nobody, nobody made it look easier than Derek O’Connor. He was just poetry in motion. He just sat in and moved, and he had a good racing brain as well. It’s like some people who can make the tennis look easy, and there’s some fellas that can make the golf look easy. He was the Tiger Woods of amateur riders.”

“Nobody made it look easier than Derek O’Connor. He was just poetry in motion.”

Ted Walsh

The go-to man for a good young horse

O’Connor was the man everyone wanted when they needed to know how good a young horse was. “Most people didn’t get him unless they had one that they thought was a pretty good horse,” Walsh said. “And he was very sympathetic as well. If a horse didn’t have a chance, he wouldn’t knock it about to be third or fourth. He’d just sit up and finish as close as he could.”

“He rode in a good era, with the late John Thomas McNamara and Enda Bolger, who were all great amateur riders as well. And then along came Derek and Jamie Codd, who was a very fine amateur as well. But he was just a bit special to watch. Derek always looked like he was part of the horse. Even when he rode moderate horses, he looked like they were OK. He never exposed their weaknesses.”

O’Connor won the 2021 Kim Muir for Walsh on Any Second Now. “He rode Cheltenham the same as he rode a point-to-point,” Walsh said. “I used him at home any time I could get him if I had something pretty good.”

Walsh said O’Connor stood out from his teens. “From a very early stage, the late Tom Costello used to say to me, ‘This fellow’s a bit special,’ and that was when he was 16 or 17,” he said. “Right through to when he ended at 43, he rode as well last week as he did when he was in his 20s. Every so often a fella comes along who’s a bit special, and Derek was definitely a bit special.”

Love Me Tender ‘could be anything’

Walsh was also very taken with Love Me Tender, who made it two from two over hurdles for Willie Mullins at Naas. “If Love Me Tender gets his jumping a little bit better than it was at Naas, I’d say he could be anything,” he said. “He absolutely destroyed a pretty decent horse. If his jumping gets to where a top-class hurdler’s should be, you could be looking at a Champion Hurdler.”

He is less sure about Kopek Des Bordes, beaten ten lengths at 1-4 by Irish Panther on his return. “His jumping is going to let him down. It let him down over hurdles. He was hit and miss,” Walsh said. “He looks to me like he’s lacking scope to jump. I’d say he’s a good horse, but I doubt he’ll end up being a champion chaser.”