F EATURE IN CONVERSATION
Time out with the trainers
Every trainer dreams of saddling a winner at The Festival™ and while many leading names are waiting for their first, Nicky Henderson and Willie Mullins have 147 between them. They may be on different teams when it comes to contesting the Prestbury Cup for Great Britain and Ireland, but the two most successful trainers in Cheltenham’s history are friends away from the racecourse. Nick Seddon joined them to find out what the week is like for a top trainer…
Johnny Francombe was due to ride him and he got hurt in the Arkle. I went into the weighing room and the only guy that was in there was my dear old friend Steve Smith Eccles. He’d ridden for me in the past and we’d fallen in and out of love many times by then. He wasn’t riding for me at the time but I didn’t have any other option! He went on to win three Champion Hurdles on him, so that’s fate for you. WM My first winner as a trainer was Tourist Attraction in the 1995 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle. She was owned by the North Kildare Racing Club, which was an amalgamation of the rugby club. They were lots of fun to have there on the day and as you can imagine there were some pretty major celebrations when she won at something like 25-1! Mark Dwyer rode her and he rode a good bit for my father, so there were lots of nice crossovers and of course winning a race like that was a huge moment for the yard too.
Do you have a routine for a day at The Festival™ and how different is that to a ‘normal’ day when you’re racing? NH It’s definitely different. Nowadays I start by doing a talk for my sponsors first, but it’s a very difficult week for socialising. You don’t get much respite and I don’t do things like lunch at Cheltenham because you’re just not in the mood for it. I’m very superstitious though. There used to be a manhole cover where I’d watch every race going back to the See You Then years. They left it there when they built the new stand, but unfortunately you can’t see over the top of the side of the new stand so I don’t use it anymore! WM Not really. Basically I just arrive as late as I can in the run-up to the first race and then it’s non-stop after that. I don’t get a chance for a cup of tea unless I get one during a race and we just tend to work all the way through as we usually have runners in every single race. Unlike Nicky, I’m not superstitious. I don’t have any favourite
What makes The Festival™ so special? Nicky Henderson There’s nothing else like it. The atmosphere is special at Cheltenham but I must say they have done a great job at Aintree too. This is the golden apple for both owners and trainers and if you’ve missed Cheltenham you’ve had it! Willie Mullins I think it’s probably the rivalry between Ireland and the UK and the fact that it has always been considered the pinnacle of the National Hunt season. It’s the Olympics of our sport, and it’s the nearest thing to a match that you’ll find between the Irish and the Brits – and now the French are joining in too! Who was your first Cheltenham Festival winner and what do you remember about the day? NH It was See You Then in the 1985 Champion Hurdle. We’d started in 1978 and I was very naïve and didn’t have a clue what I was doing – I was just very lucky that I had such a good horse.
36 THE F E S T I VAL TM PREV I EW MAGAZ I NE
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