F EATURE IN CONVERSATION
“It has always been the pinnacle of the National Hunt season… the Olympics of our sport”
about getting your horses to The Festival™. You can go there with all the confidence in the world but anything can jump up and bite you at any time. WM We’re hugely apprehensive in the run-up to The Festival™ and then also if things don’t go right on the first day and so on. Generally though there’s not a great deal you can do once the first race starts – it’s all in the lap of the Gods. You can fix very little when you’re at the races, so I always say to my team that there will be good stuff and bad stuff. We bottle it all up until we get home and then take stock.
spots or lucky hats or pants! I probably used to be during my riding career but now I’mmore philosophical. Are you more nervous at The Festival™ than you are before and during other races throughout the year? NH Oh sugar, of course! You definitely feel the nerves, especially going into those big races and waiting for the likes of Altior and Sprinter Sacre before the Betway Champion Chase – and I suspect it will be the same with Shishkin. It’s almost worse in the build-up. We all get very jittery when you get to around four or five weeks before, because it’s all
Which of your own horses are you looking forward to seeing run at this year’s Festival and why? NH There are so many and we’ve got quite a strong team, but I am looking forward to Chantry House running, funnily enough. I think we might have unlocked a little corner in him that might help and the Boodles Gold Cup is very special. WM I don’t have a preference really. I just hope they all run well and come back safe. I would like to see Chacun Pour Soi put in a good performance. It hasn’t been his luckiest meeting and
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