Q: How many Festivals have you attended previously?
A: This is my fifth one working for Jessie but I was at four or five for Willie Mullins before that.
Q: How many horses and staff approximately are you overseeing next week?
A: I’d say we’ll only have six runners, so two other staff will travel with me. Willie Mullins must have 50 horses and 30 staff going over, the sheer logistics of that is unbelievable.
Q: What is the hardest part of the week for you?
A: Not one bit of it is stressful. It’s a handy drive and the facilities there are superb. There are some Irish tracks where you could be told after a four-hour drive that there were only two stables available for five horses.
Q: What will a typical day involve for you at Cheltenham?
A: We get going at 6am, be in the racecourse stableyard for 7am and get the horses ridden out by 8am. You can come and go as you like in Cheltenham – the only rule is that the last horse must be gone off the track by 9.30am. After we wash down the horses and the tack you are killing time then before racing starts.
After racing we like to give the horses a pick of grass close to where the runners pull-up after the finish line. We give them a feed and then often we will head up to the Hunter’s Lodge for a bit of craic. But we don’t stay up late.
Q: Are stable staff well looked after in Cheltenham?
A: All the English tracks look after us well. They are so professional in Cheltenham – the stable manager rang up yesterday to see how many stables we needed and what kind of bedding we would like. The security there is top-notch too – they leave nothing to chance.
Q: What was your best day at the Festival to date?
A: Bostons Angel in the RSA Chase was the first horse I led up for Jessie at Cheltenham and it was great that he won. Lovely owners too. Of course Jezki winning last year too was very special for the whole team.