With his eyes closed in rapture and his arms raised aloft to the heavens, Davy Russell personified what it means to be a Cheltenham winner. Sitting astride the bay gelding Lord Windermere after leading him to a shock victory in last year’s Gold Cup race, the veteran steeplechaser showed that the road to Cheltenham is not just long and winding; it can also lead to the stairway to heaven.
The former Irish champion jockey had just lived every rider’s dream by steering a Cheltenham champion up the hilly home straight and across the Prestbury Park finishing line. His reaction said it all. He was not just reaching out to touch posterity; he had finally surmounted the steepest of Sisyphean slopes.
Keeping up with the Cheltenham Celtic Cavalry
(Image credit: creditUnknown)
For sheer entertainment, the raw talent on show and the awe inspiring setting, Cheltenham has no equal. As soon as the tape goes up for the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, just after 2 pm on Tuesday 10 March 2015, the famous Cheltenham Roar will reverberate around Prestbury Park.
The eyes of the sporting world will be fixed on the seven daily races as they unfold in the usual breath-taking fashion. Riders, trainers, owners and racing fans alike will live and breathe through the fast and furious four days of exhilarating jump racing until the last horse crosses the finishing post at around 5.30pm on Friday 13 March.
Spice is added to the occasion by the Anglo-Irish rivalry that pits the best trained horses from Kildare to Tipperary against England’s finest. The Celtic cavalry, transported in their hundreds across the Irish Sea, will be supported by thousands of infantry, armed with the racing section of the daily newspapers and ready to pull the betting app trigger on their mobile devices.
Older racing fans will have sepia-tinged recollections of thrilling Gold Cup encounters from the sixties between the formidable Arkle and the courageous Mill House. While Best Mate’s hat trick of Gold Cup wins in 2004 captures the imagination, for many, the ghostlike grey Desert Orchid gliding to victory in the 1989 Gold Cup remained the most abiding image of the festival. That was until last year when Russell and Lord Windermere stunned the racing world by galloping to Gold Cup victory, despite the bay gelding’s betting odds of 20/1.
Not only was it Ireland’s first Gold Cup success in eight long years, but in an ironic twist of fate, Lord Windermere was trained by Jim Culloty, the jockey that rode Best Mate to that famous treble a decade ago. In the process Culloty became only the fourth ever person to both ride then train a Gold Cup winner.
Once asked by an interviewer, what his best day as a jockey was, the unassuming Russell’s response was that ‘every day is a good day to be a jockey’. Indeed it is, but none could have bettered that famous day last March for the popular Irishman. Success will be all the more harder for Russell and Lord Windermere as they seek to keep the flag flying for the Irish. With a fiercely competitive race card already lined up for the 2015 Gold Cup, the best odds guaranteed are being offered on the likes of Bobs Worth and Road to Riches, so now is the time to bet on Cheltenham Festival with William Hill, top British bookmaker.
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