TED Walsh took the racing world by surprise at Punchestown last Saturday when he announced his immediate retirement as a member of the RTÉ Racing team after 40 years in front of the cameras.

Champion amateur rider 11 times, Walsh first started commenting on racing in the 1980s, prior to his retirement from riding in 1986. After just a few years his unique straight-from-the-hip broadcasting style made him a household name and in 1991 he won a prestigious Jacob’s Radio & Television Award.

He maintained the RTÉ link while his racehorse training business and family grew. He was also in demand with Channel 4 and ITV for televised British racing. Following the retirement of Robert Hall as host of RTÉ Racing in 2019, Walsh appeared less frequently during RTÉ’s coverage though his appearances were usually memorable.

Announcing his decision towards the end of RTÉ’s coverage last Saturday, Walsh said: “I got a great chance from RTÉ and I want to thank them very much for giving me the opportunity to comment on a sport that I love, filled with people that I admire, a lot of them are my friends.

“I must say, the late Tim O’Connor was a great help to me. Got me in it. It’s 40 years. It’s a long time to be doing anything and I’ve enjoyed every day of it. We’ve a great producer now in Ryan McCann and a good head of sport in Declan McBennett. Ryan, I know I’ve dropped you in it here with this, but at the same time you’ll understand.

“There comes a time in everyone’s life when they call it a day. Ruby called it a day pulling up here, so did Katie (Walsh) and Nina (Carberry) and so did Puppy Power and so is Ted Walsh.”

Turning to his co-presenters Jane Mangan, Barry Geraghty and Lisa O’Neill, Walsh said: “I loved it and I had a great response. I got myself into a bit of hot water here and there but that happens on live television. I’ve enjoyed it, it’s a great sport, a great game, it’s been good to all of ye, it’s been very good to me and everyone connected with it. Thank you all very much and thanks RTÉ.”

His co-presenter Jane Mangan said: “Ted Walsh and Robert Hall raised and informed generations of racing fans. They literally were RTÉ Racing for 30 years. Today marks the end of an iconic broadcasting career. For many, the end of all we’ve ever known. It has been our privilege. Thank you.”

Walsh replied: “Before I go off the air completely, I want to thank my family as well too. They’ve been great supporters of mine through. I’ve enjoyed the success that Ruby and Katie have had, and Jennifer and Ted, and their involvement in it as well too. And one particular person, my partner for life, Helen, without her, I don’t know what I would have done. Thanks Helen.

“People at home may think it’s sudden, but I went to Cheltenham to ride Attitude Adjuster with the view that I might stop at Punchestown here the following April. And when I was walking back down the shoot, I said this is as good a time as any. Standing here with ye, and a great meeting here at Punchestown, a place I love, I’ve been coming here since 1961. My first time here, I came here with my dad and mam. There’s no better place, I’ll be coming here again.”

TED’S TOP 10 TV QUIPS

1. “This is a lovely horse, I rode her mother once.”

2. Robert Hall: “What’s your favourite Kardashian and why?”

Ted Walsh: “I never ate a Kardashian, what are they?”

3. “Horses get killed, jockeys get injured, no-one knows that better than me watching Ruby. I got injured myself. It’s part of the game, that’s what the sport is. If you don’t like racing, go and watch Peppa Pig!”

4. “I think ragwort is an absolute disgrace around the country. I pull ragwort. People say it’s carcinogenic. I’ve been pulling it since I was 16 and I’m not dead yet. I think it’s a disgrace. Coming down and looking at the fields with ragwort. The county council should be shot and the dirty farmers that let it grow up around them ... shoot them as well. Shoot the whole lot of them.”

5. On winning the 1979 Queen Mother Champion Chase on Hilly Way.

“I winged the last and he went away and won five lengths. Mahatma Gandhi’s mother would have won on him and she wasn’t much good to ride!”

6. On handicap weights:

“Arkle got beat carrying 12st 10lb in a Massey-Ferguson. If you gave a horse 12st 10lb now they’d put you in jail. Dirty, soft, pussy-footers!”

7. On the 2018 Punchestown Champion Hurdle “Samcro jumps it perfect and just knuckles over. The other horse [Melon] steps … ah, shit.”

8. On Yorkhill: “A dirty rotten so’n’so, and nothing short of it.”

9. On Mengli Khan: “Out through the bloody wing. What a stupid horse to do that! Isn’t he brain dead! What a clown!”

10. On Faugheen: “If I had a horse at home like him, I’d go to bed with him.”