IT must be a tough life if you're a jump jockey name is Ruby Walsh.
    
Imagine having to choose which horse to ride from the stable of champion English trainer Paul Nicholls or his Irish counterpart Willie Mullins.
    
It's like having to decide whether to play for Manchester United one week or Barcelona the next!
    
But that's the enviable position that Walsh now finds himself in as he looks certain to finish top jockey in the current Cheltenham National Hunt Ferstival - even with two days to go.
     
Walsh rode a tremendous treble on the second day of the Festival courtesy of Mikael d'Haguenet and Cooldine for Mullins, followed up by the amazing Master Minded for Nicholls.
     
And that took his total for the meeting to four after winning the last race on the first day on Quevega - trained by Mullins.
      
Of course, Walsh's mega talent has put himself in the position in which he can choose between the best equine talent of the jumping game from both sides of the Irish Sea. But it's not a bad situation, is it?
       
Mikael d'Haguent was stunning in landing the Ballymore Novices' Hurdle, leaving Walsh saying: "He's a machine. When the gap came he just shot through it. In two strides it was all over - that's the sign of an exceptional horse."
     
If Ruby thought that things couldn't get any better, they could! For Cooldine followed up just over half-an-hour later as he put up a towering performance to run away with the RSA Chase by 16 lengths.
     
Cooldine must, if staying sound, be a major contender for next year's Cheltenham Gold Cup, a point underlined by Walsh when he said: "I love this horse. He has the heart of a lion and jumped like a stag."
      
The treble completed by Master Minded was totally predicatable, but the six-year-old proved in winning the Queen Mother Champion Chase for a second successive year that he is one of the best two milers we have seen.
      
One top prize that eluded Mullins was the Weatherby's Champion Bumper, a race he has won six times. But none of his eight candidates this year could land a blow on the hugely impressive Dunguib, trained by his Irish counterpart Phillip Fenton. Tweet