Festival Preview Magazine 2019

Festival Preview Magazine 2019

March 2019 £4

Serious business Cheltenham champions Gordon Elliott and Davy Russell are not about to take the defence of their titles lightly

28991 Cheltenham Festival 2019 Preview Magazine Cover.indd 1

12/02/2019 15:04

Welcome to The Festival

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A S WE look forward to The for what’s in store. This year’s Festival is gearing up to be a really exciting event and I can’t wait until we open the gates at 10.30am on Tuesday, March 12. We hear from two of the key figures in Irish Jump racing, Gordon Elliott and Davy Russell, who won the Irish Independent Leading Trainer Award and Holland Cooper Leading Jockey Award at The Festival in 2018. Both have key chances at this year’s event and will no doubt be in the Winner’s Enclosure during the week. I would very much like to welcome Magners to this year’s Festival. They are our new presenting partner and Cheltenham Gold Cup sponsor and I am sure this is the start of a long-lasting and mutually beneficial partnership. Magners Ciderland is situated in The Orchard (available to those in the Club Enclosure) and is worth a visit during your day at The Festival. At The Festival in 2018 four of the 28 races were won by female jockeys and we catch up with the girls as they talk about the experience of what standing on the Winner’s Podium meant to them. We also celebrate Buveur D’Air, who is aiming to win his third Unibet Champion Hurdle, a feat not achieved since Istabraq at the turn of the century. We hear from jockeys Barry Geraghty and Noel Fehily as well as trainer Nicky Henderson about the horse and his prospects this year. It would be truly great to see him make history. Other information about the event is included in the magazine; we have a new restaurant, the Horse & Groom pub, as well as details about The Orchard, the new Magners Cheltenham Gold Cup trophy and the #ColourMeMarch style competition on Ladies Day, which this year is open to fashionable men as well as women. We look forward to welcoming you to the Home of Jump Racing for what promises to be four extraordinary days of action. Ian Renton Festival ™ presented by Magners, this magazine provides us with the opportunity to whet the appetite

GORDON ELLIOTT The trainer who owned The Festival last year

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DAVY RUSSELL . . . and the man who took the riding honours

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WONDERWOMEN Four female jockeys who hit the heights in 2018

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BUVEUR D’AIR Focus on the dual Champion Hurdle hero

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PUNTING POINTERS James Pyman shares his Festival strategy

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FIND YOURWAY AROUND Racecourse map with all the main attractions

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MICK O’TOOLE Farewell to a legend of the game

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MICK FITZGERALD The TV pundit recalls Gold Cup glory day

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DESSIE DOES IT! Thirty years on from great grey’s golden hour

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MAGNERS ADDS FESTIVAL FIZZ The story behind our new partnership

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THE HORSE & GROOM Meet us at Cheltenham Racecourse’s first pub

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THE ORCHARD Dream enclosure comes to fruition

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TRAINERS MARK YOUR CARD Leading lights and dark horses revealed

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COMING UP All the latest from Jockey Club Racecourses

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An official Cheltenham Racecourse publication Copyright 2019. Except as permitted by the current legislation, no part of the magazine may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior permission. All information correct at time of going to press. Cheltenham Racecourse Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL50 4SH A RACING POST production for Cheltenham Racecourse Executive editor Sophia Dale Art director Paul Crabtree Commissioning editor John Cobb Design Tom Park Photographs Edward Whitaker, Patrick McCann, Mark Cranham, John Grossick, Getty Images, Dan Abraham Print PCP

Regional Director,

Jockey Club Racecourses

March 2019 The Festival 3

Four Days Of Extraordinary

DAY 1 CHAMPION DAY Tuesday March 12

DAY 2 LADIES DAY Wednesday March 13

10.30 Gates open. Make sure you visit the trade stands in the Tented Village for some Festival shopping on the Racecourse. A great mix of information, previews, interviews, news, commentaries and results brought to you by a top team of reporters and pundits 12.15 Top trainers and jockeys run through the card with Martin Kelly in the Paddock 10.00 Tune into Cheltenham Radio on 87.7FM, online on cheltenham.co.uk or via Sound Dec earpieces available to buy

Ladies Day competition Men and women can now enter the Ladies Day competition #ColourMeMarch via social media, in advance or on the day. Prizes include a MINI ONE and a Boodles necklace 12.45 Festival legend Sprinter Sacre, who returned to a rapturous reception after regaining his Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase crown in 2016, parades in the Paddock 10.30 Gates open. Make sure you visit the trade stands in the Tented Village for some Festival shopping on the Racecourse. A great mix of information, previews, interviews, news, commentaries and results brought to you by a top team of reporters and pundits 12.15 Top trainers and jockeys run through the card with Martin Kelly in the Paddock 10.00 Tune into Cheltenham Radio on 87.7FM, online on cheltenham.co.uk or via Sound Dec earpieces available to buy

12.30 Rehabilitation of Racehorses parade in the Paddock

1.30 Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle £125,000 

2m 87y

2.10 Racing Post Arkle Chase £175,000 

1m 7f

2.50 Ultima Handicap Chase £110,000 

3m 1f

1.30 Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle £125,000 

2m 5f

2.10 RSA Insurance Novices’ Chase £175,000 

3m 80y

2.50 Coral Cup (Handicap Hurdle) £100,000 

2m 5f

3.30 Unibet Champion Hurdle £450,000  2m 87y Buveur D’Air will be trying to become the first horse since Istabraq to win three Champion Hurdles. Read about his connections’ hopes for the historic bid, sure to be a highlight of The Festival’s opening day, on page 33

3.30 Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase £400,000  1m 7f 99y A chance to witness more Festival history as last year’s hero Altior goes for his 18th consecutive victory, which would equal the record set by the mighty Big Buck’s

4.10 OLBG Mares’ Hurdle £120,000 

2m 3f 200y

4.10 Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase £65,000 

3m 6f 37y

4.50 Close Brothers Novices’ Handicap Chase £70,000 

2m 4f 44y

4.50 Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle £80,000 

2m 87y

5.30 National Hunt Chase £125,000 

3m 7f 147y

5.30 Weatherbys Champion Bumper £75,000 

2m 87y

5.40 The Centaur Top covers band The Wickermen lead the way for the post-race sing-song with old favourites and new tunes. For details on bands through the afternoon see the Plan Your Day section at thefestival.co.uk

5.40 The Centaur The Wickermen lead the way for the post-race sing-song. Elsewhere on course during the day catch The Lucky 15’s and The Hip Cats

March 2019 The Festival 5

DAY 3 ST PATRICK’S THURSDAY Thursday March 14

DAY 4 GOLD CUP DAY Friday March 15

10.30 Gates open. Make sure you visit the trade stands in the Tented Village for some Festival shopping on the Racecourse. A great mix of information, previews, interviews, news, commentaries and results brought to you by a top team of reporters and pundits 12.15 Top trainers and jockeys run through the card with Martin Kelly in the Paddock 10.00 Tune into Cheltenham Radio on 87.7FM, online on cheltenham.co.uk or via Sound Dec earpieces available to buy

10.30 Gates open. Make sure you visit the trade stands in the Tented Village for some Festival shopping on the Racecourse. A great mix of information, previews, interviews, news, commentaries and results brought to you by a top team of reporters and pundits 12.15 Top trainers and jockeys run through the card with Martin Kelly in the Paddock 10.00 Tune into Cheltenham Radio on 87.7FM, online on cheltenham.co.uk or via Sound Dec earpieces available to buy

1.30 JLT Novices’ Chase £150,000 

1.30 JCB Triumph Hurdle £125,000 

2m 3f 166y

2m 139y

2.10 Pertemps Network Final (Handicap Hurdle) £100,000 

2.10 Randox Health County Handicap Hurdle £100,000 

2m 7f 213y

2m 139y

2.50 Ryanair Chase £350,000 

2.50 Ryanair Chase £350,000 

2m 4f 127y

2m 4f 127y

3.30 Magners Cheltenham Gold Cup £625,000 3m 2f 70y Native River, who saw off Might Bite in a thriller last year, will be back to defend his crown, with RSA Insurance Chase winner Presenting Percy perhaps providing the sternest opposition

3.30 Sun Racing Stayers’ Hurdle £325,000 2m 7f 213y Last year Penhill scored following a long absence and trainer Willie Mullins adopts a similar policy this time. Cleeve Hurdle winner Paisley Park is the new kid on the block in this division

4.10 St James’s Place Foxhunter Chase £45,000 

3m 2f 70y

4.50 Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Handicap Chase £111,000  2m 62y

4.10 Brown Advisory & Merriebelle Stable Plate (Handicap Chase) £110,000 

5.30 Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle £70,000  2m 4f 56y

2m 4f 127y

4.50 Dawn Run Mares Novices’ Hurdle £90,000

2m 179y

Award presentations – Holland Cooper Leading Jockey, NetJets Leading Owner, Irish Independent Leading Trainer and Britain v Ireland in the BetBright Prestbury Cup – as soon as final results are known 5.40 The Centaur Tommy and The Fuse round things off with a stirring finale following entertainment throughout the day from The Lucky 15’s, All Folk’d Up and The Hip Cats

5.30 Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Handicap Chase £70,000 

3m 2f

5.40 The Centaur Irish folk five-piece All Folk’d Up blend originals with well-known classics given a contemporary twist. Elsewhere during the day catch Tommy and The Fuse, The Lucky 15’s and The Hip Cats

6 The Festival March 2019

cheltenham.co.uk

@CheltenhamRaces

Cheltenham Racecourse

Cheltenham champions

The trainer tells David Jennings how last year’s Festival went from Tuesday torment to a record winner-packed party beyond his wildest dreams

G ORDON ELLIOTT had seven runners on the opening day of The Festival in 2018 and the last four of them failed to even finish. Apple’s Jade was the skimpiest favourite of the entire week but took only third in the OLBG Mares’ Hurdle. He had two runners in National Hunt Chase, including Jury Duty, who was sent off the 4-1 favourite but unseated Jamie Codd at the second-last when out of contention. De Plotting Shed, a strongly fancied 11-2 v

8 The Festival March 2019

The 72 hours in Festival history that became Gordon Elliott The Show

The Elliott team won eight of the 15 races in which they had runners on an incredible final three days

March 2019 The Festival 9

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Samcro Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle Wednesday

v chance for the Close Brothers Novices’ Handicap Chase, was pulled up on the home turn when beaten. Tycoon Prince had already departed the scene by that stage, Jack Kennedy pulling him up quickly after a desperate mistake four out. Considering he saw a 1-2 shot stuffed and his last four runners on the day, three of them priced 6-1 or shorter, not complete, you cannot blame Elliott for describing his Tuesday torment as “rough”. Perhaps the words used during the post-mortem that night were not as consumer- friendly. “Tuesday was tough for us to take,” Elliott admits. “We were hoping Apple’s Jade would get us off the mark. She was the one we fancied most for the week. She ticked the boxes as she’d been there and done it all before. “She just wasn’t herself on the day and ran below-par. She was in-season, that was a recurring theme with her through the second half of last season. It was very frustrating as she was always great in the lead-up to a race but then ruin her chances on the day. “Then, when Mossback lost his life a few minutes later it was hard. He was a promising young staying chaser so that was a big blow. In this game, though, you can’t dwell on the disappointments for too long. You have to pick yourself up and go again. There’s no other option.”

Elliott won eight of the remaining 21 races, despite not having a representative in the Ryanair, Champion Chase, Stayers’ Hurdle, Foxhunter, Mares Novices’ Hurdle or Grand Annual. To summarise, he was successful in 53 per cent of the races in which he had runners over Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. That is an absurd statistic in anyone’s language, even the one spoken by greats like Willie Mullins, Nicky Henderson and Paul Nicholls. Samcro started the resurgence. The unbeaten son of Germany was the buzz horse heading into last year’s Festival. He was the one who wasn’t going to come off the bridle in the Ballymore, Wednesday’s opener, according to every Cheltenham preview night. There was a running joke between Matt Chapman and Michael O’Leary about him being the second coming of Christ. “With horses like Samcro there’s always a

lot of pressure on them delivering, as you’ve seen with him this year,” Elliott explains. “That day at Cheltenham, when there was big, big pressure on him, he delivered. He did it well, the way we expected him to. “There was a lot of pressure walking into the racecourse on the Wednesday. I could really feel it. I suppose the fact Tuesday didn’t go to plan added to it. There was a lot of pressure, for me, for Jack [Kennedy], for the whole team, so I was delighted Samcro did the business. We needed him to. That got us back in the game. We could enjoy the week after that.” A ND boy did you enjoy it, Gordon. With the pressure cooker turned down a little, Dounikos was slightly disappointing in the RSA but Barra ran above herself in the Coral Cup, finishing third to Bleu Berry. Wednesday was a success even before the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase came along. Up stepped Tiger Roll. The ground was believed to be against the pint-sized winner of the 2014 JCB Triumph Hurdle and 2017 National Hunt Chase and he drifted from 7-2 to 7-1. But ground, trip or track does not trouble Tiger Roll and he surged clear in the hands of Keith Donoghue, the six-footer who somehow wasted down to 11st 4lb to take the ride. “It’s funny, we fancied Cause Of Causes v

‘In this game you can’t dwell on disappointments for long. You have to pick yourself up and go again’

March 2019 The Festival 11

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v more but Jamie [Codd] said he was never travelling in that ground and it just never happened. “For Tiger Roll to win three different races at The Festival was brilliant. He’s been a great servant to us over the years in all sorts of races. I was delighted for Keith, too. He’s such an important part of our team and would you believe Keith shed 7lb in no time at all in order to ride Tiger Roll. He got his just rewards. He deserved it. Obviously Tiger Roll went on to win the Grand National, which was a very special day, but so was Cheltenham.” Wednesday got even more wonderful as Veneer Of Charm sprang a 33-1 shock in the Boodles Fred Winter. “You could never be confident about a horse who was well beaten at Navan on his previous start but I thought he could run okay if things went to plan. He was very green but got the job done.” Three winners on Wednesday. Did that make up for Tuesday? “Oh, definitely. The mood was different walking out of the track that night. Completely different,” Elliott replies. Surely Thursday could not compete, could it? Of course it could. The day began identically as Elliott sent out the opening winner, Shattered Love running away with the JLT Novices’ Chase. A shuddering error at the last reduced her winning margin to only seven lengths. It could have been more. “We did fancy her a bit,” the trainer says. “She had the 7lb mares’ allowance and she’s built like a gelding. We thought the ground was in her favour too so it wasn’t a massive surprise she won. She was brilliant. It was the perfect way to start the day.” It was about to get better. Glenloe, your typical JP McManus plunge in the Pertemps Final, was hammered to 9-2 favourite and was expected to provide Elliott with winner number five of the week. He failed by a nose. F ORTUNATELY for Elliott, his other runner in the race was Delta Work, the 6-1 winner under Davy Russell. An ultra-competitive 23-runner handicap was turned into a Gordon Elliott benefit. Remarkable stuff. “That’s when we knew the horses were really flying. To have the 1-2 in the Pertemps was great. I thought Glenloe was a bit unlucky. He missed the last and if he’d jumped it he probably would have won. To be first and second in a race like that is unbelievable. On Tuesday I thought, ‘Oh my God, it’s going to be one of those weeks’. It was unbelievable how it changed around.” Five winners quickly became six thanks to The Storyteller. He did everything to throw away the Brown Advisory & Merriebelle v

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Tiger Roll National Hunt Chase Wednesday

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Veneer Of Charm Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle Wednesday

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Shattered Love JLT Novices’ Chase Thursday

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Delta Work Pertemps Final Thursday

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The Storyteller Brown Advisory & Merriebelle Stable Plate Thursday

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Farclas JCB Triumph Hurdle Friday

March 2019 The Festival 13

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Blow By Blow Martin Pipe Handicap Hurdle Friday

v Stable Plate by hanging violently after the last but Russell got him straightened up in the nick of time to see off course specialist Splash Of Ginge. Two trebles in two days. At The Festival. Unheard of. Elliott wasn’t finished yet. There was a JCB Triumph Hurdle to be won with Farclas, the third day in a row he sent out the opening winner, and Blow By Blow made every yard in the Martin Pipe, a race close to his heart. “That race means a lot to me so it was great to win it,” Elliott says, referring to the contest for conditional riders named after the legendary trainer to whom he was an amateur. “Blow By Blow got a soft lead and fair play to the horse, he was a Grade 1 winner so had a bit of class. He looked well handicapped, but I thought the ground was too soft for him.” T UESDAY felt more like three years ago rather than just three days. From watching an unusually sour Apple’s Jade to cheering home Blow By Blow in the race he so wanted to win, The Festival had turned from hell to heaven in 72 hours. “To have eight winners was incredible. You go to Cheltenham hoping for one, no more. I thought Apple’s Jade might win and I was hoping Samcro would too but we would have taken one winner at the start of the week. Eight was never a number we thought we’d get near.” Eight is the most winners for a trainer at any Festival – only Willie Mullins in 2015 managed the feat before. Elliott retained his Irish Independent Leading Trainer award, this time with more to spare than in 2017, when his six winners equalled Mullins’ total but he came out on top in the photo-finish print thanks to one more second. “Cheltenham is the be-all and end-all. It is the place we all want to have winners,” he says. “Our whole season revolves around The Festival so to be champion trainer two years in a row means a lot. It really does.” Can he complete the hat-trick in 2019? “It’s been a funny old season with the way the ground has been,” he admits. “We haven’t really had a winter or proper soft ground so it’s hard to know what to expect. What I do know is we have a lot of nice horses and hopefully one or two will come good. It will be the way it is every year – we’d be thrilled to have any winner at all. Anything else is a bonus.” With the unstoppable Apple’s Jade leading his powerful army into battle and last year’s Randox Grand National hero Tiger Roll back for more in the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase, expect Elliott to enter bonus territory once again.

‘To have eight winners was

Three primed for The Festival Apple’s Jade hasn’t let us down all year, she’s been terrific and she will hopefully be our best chance of a winner at The Festival. I accept that winning the Unibet Champion Hurdle is a big ask, and Buveur D’Air won’t be easily beaten, but Apple’s Jade has been better than ever and can hopefully continue her winning spree. She’s a star. I was thrilled to see Commander Of Fleet taking the step up in trip in his stride at Leopardstown and I like his chances in the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle now. Staying is the name of the game in that race and he has lots of stamina up his sleeve. The Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle is a race I always have an eye on from a long way out and it was great to win it last year with Blow By Blow. Dallas Des Pictons would look to be our number-one hope for this year’s race. He’s improving with each run and looks tailor-made for the race.

incredible. This year will be the way it is every year – we’re thrilled to have any at all’

Cheltenham champions So sweet to finally be number one

W HEN you reflect on the His mother Phyllis had died just nine days before it all kicked off. She had been his first disciple, a selfless supporter who would coax the second-youngest of her six children out of bed at 6am to ferry him from their home in Youghal, County Cork to stable yards v Davy Russell tells Richard Forristal why being top Festival jockey meant the world to him manner in which Davy Russell owned The Festival in 2018 there is a temptation to put his two-day tour de force down to fate.

Savouring the moment: after Presenting Percy’s RSA success (left) and with the Ryanair Chase trophy

v around the country in his early teens. Russell longed to ride, but it invariably falls to a devoted mother to fuel such youthful fantasy when the most natural response would be to quench it. Phyllis Russell was that woman. She saw the fire that burned in young David’s eyes. He didn’t care for the infinite scrapheap of broken dreams and unfulfilled promise, and she wasn’t going to be the one to slay the audacity of his hope. “I had made my mind up beforehand that, if Mam hadn’t passed, or if she had passed away closer to The Festival, I wasn’t going,” Russell reveals. “I was going to stay at home with the family. But then it happened, and it was never an issue then. Part of you doesn’t know if you’re doing the right thing, but I knew what she’d have wanted me to do. She’d have wanted me to ride.” It isn’t hard, then, to surmise it was written, that Russell’s fairytale first Festival riders’ title had its origins in providence. Except that would reduce the role of DN Russell to that of a mere passive actor. A more comprehensive historical prism shows he is anything but, for he is defined by his ability to make things happen when the need is greatest. Rather than be a hostage to fortune, Russell has always seized his own destiny, his ruthless defiance arguably his most singular trait apart from the gaunt physical features of his 5ft 11in frame. L AST March, Russell arrived in the Cotswolds having ridden a winner at 12 successive Festivals. When he threw his leg over Presenting Percy before Wednesday’s RSA Insurance Novices’ Chase, expectation could hardly have been more intense. The Pat Kelly-trained son of Sir Percy was backed into 5-2 favouritism and it was up to Russell to deliver. He did exactly that, with all the calculated authority we’ve come to expect from this totem of big-race riders. Russell’s rare talent and cold psychological steel were responsible for what would unfold at Prestbury Park, notwithstanding he was glad of the opportunity to publicly acknowledge the woman who had moulded the man he had become. His emotional tribute to his mother atop Presenting Percy remains etched in the memory as one of the week’s most touching moments. “I felt it passing the line,” he admits. “My Dad [Jerry] was there and my brother Sean was there, and I could see it in them too. It was a win that meant an awful lot to an awful lot of people; to the people of Youghal, to our relatives around the country and abroad. It was on television and, it being the event that it is, it gave everyone a big lift.” It did more than lift those who loved Phyllis

Russell, or those who admired her son’s courage while his grief was still so raw. Put simply, the victory was a romantic throwback to more innocent times, when quietly spoken, small- scale Irish trainers would target their one good horse at The Festival with heroic accuracy. Somehow it felt like a nostalgic beacon of David triumphing over Goliath. Sure, Presenting Percy’s owner Philip Reynolds possesses considerable financial clout, but this is a horse he bought unproven from the renowned Costello nursery and who is trained by a curiously reticent Galway native. There were echoes of Dawn Run, Imperial Call or Danoli about the majesty of the feat, one in which Presenting Percy announced himself as a future Magners Cheltenham Gold Cup player with a supreme display of fencing and galloping. In the process, he delivered on his promise as an archetypal Irish banker. “People are after latching on to the horse,” Russell agrees. “Some horses just appeal to people, and he keeps winning – the public love a winner.” That outpouring of affection was there again when Presenting Percy made an exquisite return ‘I knew what Mam would have wanted

in the Galmoy Hurdle at Gowran Park in January, 316 days after his RSA rout. It was the day his status as the people’s horse was consecrated, and it evoked memories of another Cotswolds favourite for Russell. “The only time I’ve experienced that before was when Sprinter Sacre ran at the Punchestown Festival,” he recalls. “I rode a no-hoper, and I don’t know what it was like for Barry Geraghty but I was able to take it all in. I’ve never seen such a crowd come to see a horse. It was a special race and a special day.” Russell’s first Festival triumph of 2018 extended his winning sequence there to 13 years, all starting with a breakthrough success aboard the Philip Rothwell-trained Native Jack in the 2006 Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase. However, floating into the hallowed winner’s circle never gets old. “There’s nothing else like it in horseracing,” he says of the journey back to an adoring amphitheatre. “When it’s an Irish winner that’s been backed it would send shivers down your spine, and it’s not just Irish racegoers. A lot of the congratulations coming back down the walkway comes from English accents. “The English take to the Irish horses as much as their own, same as Irish racegoers did with Sprinter Sacre. The English are very good sportspeople, and as a proud Irishman, to hear the English cheering you on is a bit special. There are no sides – it’s just an appreciation of a good horse.” A day later Russell was simply inspired. On the Gordon Elliott-trained Delta Work he picked the pocket of Barry Geraghty over the v

me to do – she’d have wanted me to ride’

March 2019 The Festival 19

In the thick of the action: Davy Russell on Delta Work fends off Glenloe (far side) and Connetable (near) to land the Pertemps Final

v final flight to steal an advantage en route to a narrow Pertemps Network Final win, and completed a treble on the card when guiding stablemate The Storyteller to an emphatic coup in the Brown Advisory & Merriebelle Stable Plate. In between, he was at his sublime and assured best in plundering a first Ryanair Chase win for Michael O’Leary. Willie Mullins’ redoubtable Un De Sceaux was all the rage to secure a third Festival success, but Russell had other ideas in the sponsor’s ubiquitous maroon silks aboard Balko Des Flos. He eased Henry de Bromhead’s charge into Un De Sceaux’s slipstream down the hill the final time before the partnership quickly dispensed with a horse so renowned for his tenacity. “That was very special, and very important for Michael,” he says of the Ryanair win. “A lot of people thought the horse would be able to take out Willie’s horse, so to go and do it then was special.” By the close of play on the Friday, 18 years after his first outing on Toni’s Tip for Ferdy Murphy in the 2000 Kim Muir Chase, Russell was crowned The Festival’s leading rider, edging out Jack Kennedy courtesy of a solitary runner-up finish on Midnight Tour in the OLBG Mares’ Hurdle. Having won a Magners Cheltenham Gold Cup on Lord Windermere four years earlier, he had already scaled the highest individual peak,

but to outscore his peers over the four days was deeply satisfying. “It was sweet,” he says. “To be leading rider at Cheltenham means you’ve ridden more winners than the best of the best, and I don’t know whether people realise what it means to a rider. I’d love if a little more was made of it, but it’s a long week and you’re tired, so you’re just sort of given the prize. It’s lost a bit in everything that’s going on, but it is what it is, and it’s something I’ll cherish. “Jack is young and will have other chances, whereas my chances will be getting thin on the ground, so it was nice to finally do it.” The only surprise was that it took so long for someone so intimately affiliated with The Festival to top the pile. Ahead of the 2019 gala, with 22 wins, Russell is one shy of third-placed Richard Johnson on the list of active riders there and sits sixth on the overall roll of honour. W HEN you also factor in that he went on to execute a glorious Randox Health Grand National success aboard Tiger Roll before being crowned champion jockey for a third time, the impression persists that here is a 39-year-old at the absolute peak of his powers. Nowhere else, though, energises him quite like nature’s finest amphitheatre in the shadow of Cleeve Hill. It was a passion sparked by his father Jerry, who in the early 1980s famously drove a ride-on lawnmower to the track and parked it between a

Rolls-Royce and a Bentley for a bet. Then, as Russell began to carve his own legend on the Cork and Waterford point-to-point circuit, the link between that grassroots realm and stellar contemporary Festival heroes like Best Mate, Cool Dawn and Looks Like Trouble strengthened the allure. Now the relationship is more symbiotic, Cheltenham as much in thrall to him as he to it – although he had to serve his time. Coming out on the wrong side of an epic duel with his late comrade JT McNamara when Timbera was so narrowly denied by Rith Dubh in that unforgettable 2002 National Hunt Chase dust-up exacerbated his initial purgatory, and he didn’t appreciate the splendour of that defeat in the way the rest of us still do. “When you get beaten on a very good horse by a small margin it did just make me wonder what it takes to win there,” he reflects of Timbera’s near-miss. “You get to the stage when you wonder if you’re ever going to ride a winner there, but now I take every day as it comes. “As long as you don’t mess up on something and leave a race behind you, there’s no point in being disappointed. You have to go again the next day, and every day there is a new Festival.” Few others have succeeded so spectacularly in applying such a rational mindset to such a ferociously demanding environment. Russell will likely continue to be master of his own legacy.

20 The Festival March 2019

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Vanquished Brits out for Prestbury Cup revenge

Switch on and tune in RACING TV is the only place to see all 28 races from The Festival TM presented by Magners and will broadcast over 32 hours live from Cheltenham. The channel will come on air from 10am each day with Mark Your Card, a mix of features and race previews setting up viewers for the day before the live racing programme starts at 1pm. Since January 1, Racing TV has been broadcasting coverage of every race from all 26 Irish racecourses, meaning 70 per cent of all Graded and Group races in Britain and Ireland and the complete build-up to The Festival is on one channel. The team of British presenters, including Nick Luck, Lydia Hislop, Rishi Persad and Tom Stanley, will this year be joined by Irish counterparts Gary O’Brien, Kevin O’Ryan and Kate

Harrington, in addition to regular contributors Ruby Walsh and Donn McClean. Luck on Sunday will review all four days of The Festival with special guests and in-depth comment and debate. The channel is available on Sky 426, Virgin 536 and 411 (GB and Ireland), BT TV, TalkTalk, Freeview and YouView 261, Vodafone (Ireland) and Apple TV. For more information, visit racingtv.com. Listen live on course You can listen live to Cheltenham Radio on 87.7FM within five miles of the course through the online web player, via cheltenham.co.uk or with a Cheltenham Radio earpiece. The station broadcasts live news, previews, features, interviews, competitions, reviews and commentaries to give you the best of The Festival atmosphere. The Cheltenham Radio earpiece can be purchased from racecard kiosks around the racecourse for £5. To get in touch during the show contact us on cheltenhamradio@ thejockeyclub.co.uk.

six races on St Patrick’s Thursday. British trainers had their time in the sun, winning the battle for supremacy in 2014 and 2015, but since The Festival expanded to 28 races in 2016 it’s been one-way traffic. At least they could smile for a short while in 2018 after winning the opening Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle through Summerville Boy, trained just down the road from Cheltenham by Tom George. In April 2018 BetBright delivered on its pre-Festival promise and donated £10,000 to the Irish Injured Jockeys Fund. The cheque was presented by Rich Ricci, executive chairman of BetBright.

IF YOU’RE British you may want to look away now rather than be reminded of the final score in last year’s BetBright Prestbury Cup, when Ireland landed the trophy at a canter 17-11. But it could all have been so much worse, with Irish trainers leading their British counterparts 15-6 going into the final day of The Festival until doubles from Paul Nicholls and Colin Tizzard and a single from Dan Skelton restored some British pride. In fact, the competition between stables from the two rival countries was all over as soon as Laurina had landed the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle to become the sixth Irish-trained winner from the first

2014 15-12 14-13

2015 2017 2016 2018

19-9 15-13 17-11

Jack Kennedy’s JLT victory on Shattered Love was one of 17 Irish verdicts that shattered British Prestbury Cup hopes

22 The Festival March 2019

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Shining lights

WONDER WOMEN David Carr on the four female jockeys who lit up last season’s Festival

Bridget Andrews Mohaayed Randox Health County Hurdle FROM cutting school to springing a Jackpot-busting 33-1 surprise last year, Bridget From a racing family, she recalls: “During The Festival, Mum would try to pick us up ten minutes early from school – she used to say we had a dentist appointment so we could get home in time to watch the big races!” The extra-curricular activity clearly paid off as elder sister Gina won the Fulke Walwyn v Andrews has quite a Cheltenham story.

Unbridled joy for Kelly as Coo stars in Ultima

Lizzie Kelly Coo Star Sivola Ultima Handicap Chase

v Kim Muir in 2017 and Andrews had high hopes for the County Hurdle last year – until Harry Skelton, her boyfriend and the first- string jockey at Dan Skelton’s yard, intervened. “I thought I was riding Spiritofthegames,” she recollects. “I was excited to be going there with a good chance, but the ground changed and Harry wanted to ride him.” That relegated her to Mohaayed, “a lovely horse” but one whose apparent chance was summed up pre-race by the trainer. Andrews recalls: “I had what we thought was a very good ride in the conditional jockeys’ race and before I went out on Mohaayed Dan said ‘Have a nice ride but keep out of trouble, we need you to ride later.’” Yet nobody told the 33-1 shot he wasn’t fancied and Andrews says: “He travelled really well. Harry gave me a shout not to get there too soon because he knows Mohaayed well. There were four of us upsides jumping the last and we went away from them and won well.” Cue romantic celebrations with Skelton, who had dead-heated for fifth, the first to embrace an “absolutely shocked” winning rider. “He knew how much I wanted it,” Andrews says. “My goals were to ride out my claim – which I now have – and to ride a Festival winner, which I thought would be way harder.” And 2019? A realistic Andrews says: “We’ll probably run a couple in the big handicaps, if they are favourite Harry will be on them. But Dan doesn’t run horses if they have no chance – and you can see what happened last year.”

When things don’t go as you hoped at The Festival it’s a torturous experience. Ask Lizzie Kelly, who suffered exquisite agony in 2017. Not only was she unseated at the second fence on fancied Magners Cheltenham Gold Cup outsider Tea For Two but she also finished fifth in the Boodles Fred Winter Juvenile Hurdle – a race won by Richard Johnson on her stepfather Nick Williams’ other runner Flying Tiger, who she chose not to ride. “You can live with not having a winner

at The Festival when you don’t have as many rides as the big boys, but to have missed one, to have had the opportunity and not taken it, that was awful,” recalls the rider, who thought her chance had gone. “It was fairly grim but I made peace with it and I went into last year’s Festival feeling very relaxed, thinking Cheltenham couldn’t go any worse!” Which meant she felt no pressure going out to ride favourite Coo Star Sivola in the Ultima Handicap Chase. “I’m lucky I’ve had a lot of big days so I’m quite experienced in that way,” she says. “I said to the owners ‘If he’s good enough he’ll win and if he’s not he won’t’ then turned on my heels and got on the horse! “When it all goes right it feels easy. Coo Star Sivola is quite one-paced so, although a few people afterwards said I’d gone too early I hadn’t – once you’re on a roll, there no point sitting there looking pretty. “I knew if I pinged the third- last and rolled down the hill then I’d get a long one at the second-last and no-one would catch me. “It was surreal. Thank God Aidan Coleman came over and said ‘Take it all in’ otherwise I’d have been so high I’d have forgotten to appreciate the moment. It was just madness. I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. Part of me found it a huge relief.” And why stop at one? Kelly says: “We don’t feel that Cheltenham is the only place to go but we’ll have a few going and we think they’ll have a chance, otherwise you wouldn’t be there.”

Coo Star Sivola and Lizzie Kelly clear the last fence on their way to exquisite victory

‘It was just madness. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry’

26 The Festival March 2019

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Katie Walsh’s Festival winners Relegate, Poker De Sivola (below) and Thousand Stars (bottom)

Relegate makes it three and out for Cheltenham queen Katie

Katie Walsh Relegate

Weatherbys Champion Bumper CHELTENHAM means plenty to Katie Walsh, whose brother Ruby has ridden more winners at The Festival than anyone else, while father Ted has been a fixture for nearly half a century. It’s where Katie made her first big splash as a rider with victories in 2010 on Poker De Sivola in the National Hunt Chase and Thousand Stars in the County Hurdle. But she’s never taken success for granted, reflecting: “So many jockeys go through their careers never even riding at The Festival, never mind riding a winner.” So drawing a blank for the next seven years was no cause for despair and she says: “I was knocking on the door a couple of times and I

was delighted to be going there at all – at least I was competing.” She did more than compete in the Weatherbys Champion Bumper last March, coming from behind on 25-1 shot Relegate, who led home a one-two-three for Willie Mullins. “I thought she had a little squeak,” Walsh recalls. “She’s not over-big and she never looks flashy, so she goes underneath the radar. “From the top of the hill she started to pass one or two and turning in she took off when I gave her a slap – and she got there, thank God! There’s no feeling like

it in the world and walking back up the chute is something you can’t put a price on.” It is three and out for Walsh, who announced her retirement at Punchestown the following month. “I had it in the back of my head there was a possibility I wouldn’t be back the following year and it was great to get another winner,” she reflects. Asked if she’ll still return on the other side of the rails, she insists: “Oh God yes! I’ll be going back as long as I can. Some people find it hard to be a spectator but I love the game and the people in it.”

March 2019 The Festival 29

Injured warrior toughs it out to spark Pacha fairytale

Harriet Tucker and Pacha Du Polder (10) clear the last for Foxhunter glory

Harriet Tucker Pacha Du Polder St James’s Place Foxhunter Chase

when events took an agonising turn, as Tucker recounts: “My shoulder sometimes half-dislocates when I reach it too high and it did it when I was coming to the second-last. So I couldn’t slap him down the shoulder. “I was pushing and screaming and praying nobody would come and beat me because of the shoulder. I think adrenaline got me through because you don’t give up at Cheltenham.” Nor has an injury that threatened the very use of her arm deterred a rider who’ll be back at The Festival after a make-or-break operation in the summer. “They cut a bit of bone off the top of my shoulder and reattached it to the cuff to keep it in place,” says Tucker, who made an emotional winning comeback in a point-to-point in January. “It was 50-50 whether the operation would work,” she reflects. “I did worry I’d never ride again. “After the surgeon said it went

PACHA DU POLDER is the Frankel of Cheltenham tales, the horse who sets the bar impossibly high. Not only was he ridden by Olympic champion cyclist Victoria Pendleton into fifth place in the St James’s Place Foxhunter Chase in 2016 but he also launched the Bryony Frost phenomenon when winning under the new sensation the following year. Yet that was a warm-up for the story of Harriet Tucker, a point-to-point rider who did something extraordinary on just her second ride under rules. She had no high hopes and recalls: “I thought it would be amazing to come in the first ten. Walking out of the weighing room I thought, ‘God, I’m riding in the Foxhunter, this is mad’.” It got madder as the defending champion was bang there two out

well, the first thing that went

through my head was ‘Great, I can ride Pacha again at Cheltenham now’. Pacha’s

looking well at the moment so fingers crossed we can do it again.”

30 The Festival March 2019

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History in the making B ARRY GERAGHTY is in no doubt. Buveur D’Air has never received the credit he deserves. You would think being one of only ten dual winners of the Champion Hurdle – alongside such legends as Night Nurse, Monksfield and Sea Pigeon – was deserving of long-lasting adulation. But those closest to Buveur D’Air have yet to feel the love. “I don’t think he has been properly

Recognition overdue since Istabraq dominated the scene at the start of the century.

appreciated and that’s been the theme virtually from the outset,” says regular rider Geraghty. Noel Fehily, who rode Buveur D’Air to his first Unibet Champion Hurdle triumph, agrees. “I always felt he was unappreciated,” he says. However, that could be about to change if Buveur D’Air manages to join an elite band of three-time winners of the Unibet Champion Hurdle. There have only been five since the Champion Hurdle was first run in 1927. Hatton’s Grace became the first to complete the hat-trick in 1951, followed by Sir Ken, Persian War and See You Then. And it’s nearly 20 years

Jon Lees hears why the Buveur D’Air team feel the

Buveur D’Air’s connections should know what is required. Trainer Nicky Henderson saddled See You Then, while owner JP McManus raced Istabraq. But history shows this hat-trick is never a formality. Hardy Eustace could finish only third in 2006 and mounted two further unsuccessful attempts to regain his crown, while Hurricane Fly’s pair of wins came two years apart, also failing to finish closer than third on three other occasions at Cheltenham. That Buveur D’Air has reached the cusp of history and is not plying his trade over fences owes a lot to his fabled stablemate Altior. In v

dual Unibet Champion Hurdle hero remains underappreciated as he bids for a third crown

Barry Geraghty celebrates after Buveur D’Air’s second Champion Hurdle success

v 2016, the soon-to-be dual Champion Hurdle winner finished third in what proved a collectors’ item of a Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ behind Altior and Min. Altior and Buveur D’Air were sent on a similar path over fences, successfully embarking on a novice chase campaign the following winter until an unexpected change of plan in the new year. “Buveur D’Air had two runs over fences,” recalls Henderson. “His first run over fences was very good, his second run wasn’t quite so impressive. He was getting a bit low a few times, hurdling fences if you know what I mean. “His greatest weapon – and the one thing synonymous with all those great hurdlers – is he is fantastically efficient at getting from A to B very quickly. It’s the hurdling technique that’s so good. “At the same time Altior was looking pretty

good at what he was doing so we were about to walk into a mighty crash of our own. “It was a funny looking Champion Hurdle at the time and, even when we were discussing Altior with his owner Patricia Pugh, I told her: ‘You can go and win the Champion Hurdle but if you do you will probably never go chasing!’ He was going to be eight then and I thought that was getting too late.” Henderson’s musings on the subject gained sharper focus when setbacks ruled out Faugheen and Annie Power from the reckoning for the 2017 Champion Hurdle. Was it to be Altior or Buveur D’Air? “You could have switched either into the Champion Hurdle but Altior was finding life a bit easier over fences,” explains Henderson. “I’d said to JP about Buveur D’Air switching before Faugheen was knocked out, which made it more of an obvious move. I thought the door was

wide open and I wanted him to have a look inside. “I wasn’t surprised when he won it because either Buveur D’Air or Altior could have won it. I’d said I think he can win the Champion Hurdle so why don’t we switch back. For once the instinct was right.” Everyone involved with Buveur D’Air is unanimous he was not at his best at Cheltenham in 2018. Yet he still repelled the challenge of Melon to claim his second title by a neck, taking his record over hurdles to one defeat [in the Supreme] from 11 starts. H OWEVER, the horse who started the season as favourite for the 2019 Champion Hurdle was not the defending dual champion but the young upstart Samcro, the great hope of Ireland who captured the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle at The Festival last year. The pair had an early match-up at Newcastle in an unusually strong renewal of the BetVictor Fighting Fifth Hurdle that also featured Summerville Boy, winner of the Sky Bet Supreme. Despite the hype the race was unexpectedly one-sided as Buveur D’Air toyed with Samcro, cruising upsides the pretender before quickening away to win by eight lengths. Was this the

Buveur D’Air and groom Hannah Ryan exercise at Nicky Henderson’s Seven Barrows yard

moment he would win over the public? If he did, it proved a fleeting episode. “The performance he put in at Newcastle got him some recognition, until we managed to blot his copybook at Christmas,” says Geraghty. That was at Kempton, where Buveur D’Air, having survived a blunder at the third-last flight, was caught on the line by Verdana Blue, his stablemate, who inflicted a first defeat in open company. Henderson says: “When Buveur D’Air beat Samcro at Newcastle everybody said, ‘Wow, he’s very good, isn’t he?’ Of course he is – he’s been good for three years. But then having done that he goes and gets beaten by one of our own. “It was the Fighting Fifth that made everybody sit up,” he goes on. “Now we learn Samcro isn’t what everyone hoped, so maybe that wasn’t as difficult as we thought but even so, there were three or four others in the race and he only had a canter round.” Reflecting on the Unibet Christmas Hurdle reverse, Henderson adds: “Verdana Blue is a very good filly on very good ground on a track that would favour her. I know Buveur D’Air has won there but that was on soft ground which he loves. Over a sharp two miles Nico [de Boinville] was able to sit on his tail and he got the opportunity to pounce.” Defeat has not shaken the faith of anyone in the Buveur D’Air camp that a third Unibet Champion Hurdle win can be accomplished and a return to winning ways with a cruise in

Sandown’s Contenders Hurdle – for the third successive year – has only reinforced that belief. “He’s had a few battles, the biggest being in the Champion Hurdle last year, when I really don’t think he was right,” says Henderson. “Our main objective is to make sure he gets there.” Of course, the trainer has been here before. “There is always pressure around Cheltenham,” he says. “We’ve been lucky to have had See You Then and some other Champion Hurdle horses along the way like Binocular, Punjabi and My Tent Or Yours, who was second three times. “I was struggling a little in the last year with See You Then. His legs had got decidedly dangerous. We were on thin ice and got away with it. I don’t think we are in too bad a shape with Buveur D’Air. He’s pretty straightforward.” Now a place in racing history is beckoning, as Henderson recognises. “It is an elite band he will join,” the trainer says. “Istabraq was the last one and See You Then before that. He’s got every chance of achieving it.” Fehily says: “He has as good a chance as anything else to win a third. He did blot his copybook a little at Kempton but he was exceptionally good at Newcastle and on that run his form is better than anything else.” For Geraghty, a third success might just see Buveur D’Air receive the public acclaim he deserves. “It would be brilliant to win three Champion Hurdles,” he says. “To be associated with a horse of that kind of ability would be magic. I’m sure he would get his overdue recognition then.”

The famous five Triple Champion Hurdle heroes Hatton’s Grace 1949, 1950, 1951 Raised the profile of the Champion Hurdle by becoming the first horse to win the event three times. He clinched the hat-trick in dramatic circumstances, skipping clear after National Spirit came down at the last flight, in the process becoming the first 11-year-old to win the race. Trained by the great Vincent O’Brien, he excelled on the Flat as well, winning the Irish Cesarewitch twice. Sir Ken 1952, 1953, 1954 Hard on the heels of Hatton’s Grace came Sir Ken, a French import trained by Willie Stephenson. He won 20 times from 29 races, 16 of those consecutively, a record not bettered until Big Buck’s overhauled him in 2012. He was ridden to all three triumphs by Tim Moloney, who completed a four-timer having partnered Hatton’s Grace in 1951. PersianWar 1968, 1969, 1970 The remarkably tough Persian War ushered in a golden era of hurdlers, of which he is often touted as the best. He was trained to his three wins by Colin Davies and came very close to making it four when finishing second to Bula in 1971. SeeYou Then 1985, 1986, 1987 So rarely did See You Then run that he became known as ‘See You When’. His legs were so fragile he raced only 19 times yet he was still coaxed to three wins at Cheltenham by Nicky Henderson. Istabraq 1998, 1999, 2000 The modern master Istabraq was invincible in his pomp. Trained by Aidan O’Brien and ridden by Charlie Swan, Istabraq was formidable at Cheltenham, winning his first crown by 12 lengths, the biggest winning margin for 66 years. He was denied a crack at a fourth title in a row in 2001 when The Festival was cancelled due to the foot and mouth outbreak.