THE relaxation of the protocols that allow him jet home a little more often to race and see wife Hannah and daughter Emma are welcome. The proliferation of Covid-19 tests less so.

“You have to get a test done 72 hours before you arrive in Ireland,” explains Robbie Power, currently based in England and allowed by the relaxation of restrictions to ride in Ireland for graded races without the need to self-isolate. “So I get a test done over here.

“Then you arrive at the races in Ireland but you don’t have to get tested when you arrive back in England. If I was in Ireland for a few days, I would have to have a test in Ireland and then another test done when I come back, so I’m getting well used to having cotton buds stuck up my nose and down my throat.

“It’s not great,” he adds, with a very evident degree of understatement.

The Meath pilot doesn’t get bogged down by the uncontrollables of his life, however. He is an advocate of the sentiments expressed in Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem, If, having been handed what remains the simplest and most effective recipe for happiness while still a boy.

“‘Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change and the courage to change the things I can.’ That’s what my grandfather used always say to me.”

Of course the worst of the arrangement is being away from home for extended periods.

“Emma is two. She knows I’m not there. She thinks Daddy’s on holidays. ‘Daddy racing, Daddy holidays.’ She gets very excited when I come home. Hannah is very good with her and she’s not too bad when I’m leaving to come back over here.”

Disappointments

The sacrifice is necessary as a professional, even if Colin Tizzard’s string has not been hitting the high notes just yet.

“You’re hopeful they’ll turn a corner shortly. There have been a few disappointments. But that’s something you can turn around. It’s not permanent. There is plenty of horses with plenty of ability.”

The suggestion that it is better for the cylinders not to be firing now rather than further down the line does not receive the Power imprimatur, the rider attributing that line of thinking to an unhealthy obsession with Cheltenham at the expense of bona fide significant prizes and races with long-established traditions. He knows it’s a genie that can’t be returned to the bottle but that the shadow of National Hunt’s nirvana robs most of the season of its day in the sun irks him.

“Everything seems to be geared around March, April, Cheltenham and the big festivals, which I think is a bit unfair on the rest of the National Hunt season. There’s an awful lot of good races before Christmas, and between Christmas and Cheltenham, that are well worth winning.

Ante-post Cheltenham

“I personally think a book shouldn’t be allowed to be opened on Cheltenham races ‘til after Christmas. Ante-post markets for Cheltenham start straight after the Champion Hurdle on the first day… which sounds a bit ludicrous. I think it’s scandalous.

“A horse wins a maiden hurdle or beginners’ chase in Galway or Wincanton in October or early November and all of a sudden is favourite for a race at the Cheltenham Festival they’ll probably end up going off at 25/1 in, or not even making it.”

It’s like the narrative now that Epatante should have her name inscribed on the Champion Hurdle trophy already, such is the so-called dearth of challengers.

“What have we had? We’ve probably had two Champion Hurdle trials. The hurdle race in Newcastle (the Fighting Fifth) and the Morgiana, and already people are saying Epatante is unbeatable and maybe she will be, but it’s too early to be talking about her being unbeatable for a race in March, when so much can go wrong for a racehorse between now and then.

“A lot of trainers are the same. They have a good horse and they plan their season back from March. That’s the way the whole thing works now.

“I do agree that staying chasers can only be campaigned so often in a year. That’s been proven over the years. Al Boum Photo has won two Gold Cups off the back of one run, Native River won a Gold Cup off the back of one run, Best Mate won three Gold Cups off the back of two runs. Sizing John won a Gold Cup off the back of one run over three miles. Staying chasers can’t be campaigned too often in a season. But maybe shorter distance horses and especially novices could be campaigned a little more because they need the experience for the Cheltenham Festival.

“They have a Road To Cheltenham programme on Racing TV. That shouldn’t start until after Christmas either.

“It’s good TV, people want to talk about it, ‘what are you going to ride in Cheltenham?’ and all this. I haven’t a clue what I’m going to ride next week, not to mind in Cheltenham!”

Santa’s flight

Power is genuine in this regard. After a few welcome days at home to do Christmas properly, and especially, to oversee Santa’s safe flight path - something he is quite au fait with by now - the plan is to fly over on St Stephen’s morning to take up an engagement with Lostintranslation in the King George.

“If Kempton is going to turn up heavy then Lostintranslation mightn’t run so that would throw things up in the air. But that’s what racing is like this time of the year. You’re always looking at the weather forecast. We’ll worry about that closer to the time.”

Bottomless ground has been the common denominator in the Flemensfirth eight-year-old’s very few poor displays. The dual Grade 1 winner, who finished just a length and a half back in third behind Al Boum Photo last March, is clearly a classy individual. The Denman Chase in Newbury is Plan B.

The Big Breakaway is still learning his trade, having had to make most of the running in his two chases. A strongly-run race is required to get a tow and the Kauto Star Novice Chase at Kempton or the Dipper in Cheltenham are the current options being considered.

“Oscar Elite is a horse who has impressed me a lot in two starts over hurdles. He won twice in Chepstow. They probably weren’t the strongest of races but he couldn’t have done it any easier. He’s a horse I like a lot.

“Bob Olinger could be a very nice novice hurdler. I know he got beaten on debut (a length by Champion Bumper winner Ferny Hollow) but think that mightn’t have been the worst thing in the world. He gets to go in another maiden to get more experience (running at Navan yesterday). I rode him in plenty of work before I came over here and I really liked the feel he gave.”

The former is a Tizzard charge, the latter owned by Brian Acheson’s Robcour - who he has enjoyed a strong partnership with - and trained by Henry de Bromhead. Of his longtime ally Jessica Harrington’s crop, Sizing Pottsie and Impact Factor have done well in handicaps and may be ready to poke their noses into graded company on softer ground.

Meanwhile, it’s “all systems go” for another tilt at the Aintree Grand National for 2018 runner-up Magic Of Light, following a third consecutive triumph in the Listed Pertemps Network Mares’ Chase at Newbury on Wednesday.

One star that can no longer be called upon is Supasundae, who has followed stablemate Sizing John into retirement. The pair were important horses in Power’s career.

“They both retired healthy and well. It’s always disappointing to lose a Grade 1 horse but Supasundae is going to retire in my yard and Hannah is going to ride him occasionally.

“We might even prepare him for a Racehorse to Riding Horse class next year. He’s going to have a good retirement and he’s been a legend of a horse. He won three Grade 1s, he always ran his race. He went 10 Grade 1s without being out of the first three (and 12 in 13), so he was a very consistent, tough horse.

Supasundae retired healthy and well to Robert Power's yard \ Healy Racing

“When those horses retire, it’s very hard to replace them. They don’t come around that often.

“I suppose Jessie was very lucky. When Alan Potts decided to move his string from Henry’s to Colin Tizzard and her, she got the two best ones in Sizing John and Supasundae. They were two very good horses. We probably didn’t get enough out of Sizing John with the injuries he had but he was a fantastic servant and they both owe nothing to anyone.”

For Power though, thinking about the past isn’t much of an option. He has 31 Grade 1 winners, 22 of which have been posted in the past four years.

He was 34 then, with an Aintree Grand National, Cheltenham, Galway Plate and Galway Hurdle on his CV, and ridden horses of the calibre of Newmill, Big Zeb and Jezki to victory.

Staying the course has paid dividends. In these most testing of times, he is confident it will do again.

Doctors are policing the effects of concussion extremely well

CONCUSSION has become one of the major topics in world sport now, with former England World Cup winner Steven Thompson revealing his battles with early onset dementia as a result of countless concussions, leading to a legal dispute. This follows in the footsteps of a similarly successful suit against the NFL in America.

Soccer has long tried to brush connections with dementia under the carpet, despite strong evidence of the damage done by heading, particularly in the days of heavier balls, as well as the historic machismo practice that was prevalent in all sports of continuing to operate when not in control of one’s mental faculties.

It is back in the headlines again though following the recent deaths of Irish hero Jack Charlton and his former England World Cup-winning teammate Nobby Stiles after long periods of dementia, and the news that Charlton’s younger brother, Bobby has now been diagnosed with the condition.

Sizing Pottsie could be heading for graded company \ carolinenorris.ie

As a National Hunt jockey, Power is in the firing line every day as falls are inevitable. But he is confident that the medical authorities are on their game in this regard.

“I’m witnessing it on both sides of the Irish Sea and I don’t think concussion can be policed any better than it is at the moment in National Hunt racing. It is being extremely well policed by both Jennifer Pugh in Ireland and Jerry Hill over here. All the doctors are policing it extremely well.

“Every time you get a fall, even if it’s a soft fall that you land on your feet, you have to answer the five or six simple questions, your helmet is checked to make sure there is no damage done to it.

“This wasn’t the case years ago. I remember getting a fall at the Punchestown Festival, not long after losing my claim. I was very mildly concussed but I was concussed. I didn’t have a ride the rest of that day but I rode the next four days of the festival. I wouldn’t have got away with that nowadays and that has to be a good thing for National Hunt racing, that concussion is being policed so much better than it was when I started riding.

“National Hunt jockeys are unlike soccer players and rugby players, we’re self-employed. If we’re not riding, we’re not getting paid, so there is an element of that, where lads want to get back quicker. But the system is so much better, and the baseline concussion tests mean, once you pass them, you are fit to go back and ride.

“Concussion was something that you could hide but nowadays, it’s virtually impossible to hide it.”

Thompson’s former teammate, Lewis Moody has told of rugby players purposely messing up their baseline tests so that their so-called ‘normal’ cognitive function would be lower to allow them to return quicker from concussion. Power says that isn’t possible in racing.

“I know of a couple of jockeys that went to do the baseline concussion test with that mentality, that if they made a balls of it, they’d be grand when they went back to do their test.

“You have to reach a certain level on the baseline test to pass it. So it’s something you can’t do because you don’t know what that level is. And you don’t want to fail that level because you want to ride. So I think it’s pretty much foolproof.

“I have gone back for a concussion test after being knocked out and failed it, so it’s pretty good. We know how difficult it is to pass the concussion test so unless you’re feeling 110%, you’re not going to take it, because if you fail it, you’re guaranteed to be gone for another week or fortnight. So you have to be pretty confident you’re going to pass it.”