A HUGE Cheltenham Festival row has erupted between Ryanair owner Michael O'Leary and the jockey who will ride his horses.
O'Leary slated Davy Russell – who rode O'Leary's Tiger Roll to victory in two Grand Nationals – for coming out of retirement.
Russell came back to ride Irish trainer Gordon Elliott's horses after his No1 jockey Jack Kennedy was ruled out of Cheltenham with a broken leg.
But multi-millionaire O'Leary told Russell: "You should put your family first and not your riding career. I wish you'd stayed retired."
Incredibly, Russell is now booked to ride O'Leary's horse Fury Road in today's Ryanair Chase – the race the airline boss sponsors – at 2.50pm.
And most unbelievable of all, he will try to steer O'Leary's Conflated to victory in Friday's Gold Cup – a contest worth £350,000 to the winner and the biggest race of the year.
Russell officially retired last December after coming back from a broken neck.
For that injury, doctors originally gave him just a ten per cent chance of ever walking again and his brutal rehab included having bolts drilled into his head.
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By mid-January, however, and fully mended, the legendary rider, 43, was back and, as Sun Racing revealed, targeting Cheltenham.
But the airline chief made it clear he felt Russell, one of racing's greatest ever jockeys, should have stayed at home.
He said: "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.
"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 have come out of retirement."
Russell hit back at O'Leary in an interview with ITV on Thursday morning.
He said: "I have about as much respect for Michael O'Leary's opinion as he has for my opinion.
"I didn't see any father of the year awards being thrown out yet and I am happy enough with my responsibilities at home.
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"That's about it."
Respected tipster Johnny Dineen was one of those piling into O'Leary for his comments.
He wrote on Twitter: "Michael O'Leary talks plenty of rubbish, it's not that long ago they were retiring from the game themselves.
"Davy Russell will be remembered as a world-class rider.
"O'Leary will be remembered as the clown who sacked a top jockey and about three unbelievably talented trainers."
While another wrote: "One is a legend jockey and one is a proper muppet who can't keep his mouth closed."
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Sun Racing's Matt Chapman conducted the original interview with O'Leary.
And he said he reckons Fury Road can do the business in the Ryanair, adding: "There could be fisticuffs!"
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