Finn Lambert is looking forward to riding Cheltenham regular Ballyandy as the young conditional jockey makes his debut at the Festival in the Pertemps Network Final Handicap Hurdle.
In what has been a rollercoaster 12 months, the 22-year-old will swap leading up runners at the meeting for riding the Nigel Twiston-Davies-trained gelding.
The opportunity comes less than a year after sustaining a knee injury which kept him on the sidelines for much of last summer. Since returning from injury Lambert has struck up a real bond with Ballyandy, having secured victory in two of his four starts aboard the 11-year-old, who will be making his fifth Festival appearance.
After landing the Weatherbys Champion Bumper at the 2016 Festival, Ballyandy has subsequently finished fourth in the 2017 Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, third in the 2019 Coral Cup Handicap Hurdle and eighth in the 2020 Unibet Champion Hurdle.
With course experience around Cheltenham counting a big factor, Lambert believes he has the perfect partner to provide him with a breakthrough victory at the meeting, which would also get him to the five winner mark which reduces his claim from 10lbs to 7lbs.
He explained: “I’ve led up at the Festival for the last couple of years, however I never thought I’d be riding at the meeting this season.
“I’ve been at Nigel’s for just over three years now and I was trying to get enough rides to do get my Category B amateur’s licence, but then last summer Nigel said ‘we are going to put you on the October course to get your conditional licence’.
“I then had a bit of a setback as I injured my knee, tearing ligaments and cartilage on a young horse in the yard.
“I was on crutches for a couple of months but Oaksey House (the Injured Jockeys Fund’s rehabilitation and fitness centre in Lambourn) were brilliant with my rehab and I managed to pass my return to ride before the October course.
“If you had told me back then I would have had a ride on one of the best horses in the yard at the Cheltenham Festival I definitely wouldn’t have believed you.
“I’m really excited and I’m glad I’ve got an opportunity to ride a horse like Ballyandy there. It will be a complete adrenaline rush.
“It makes it a lot easier having my first Festival experience on a horse like him as he is such a professional. He makes my life and learning how to ride so much easier.
“I’ve got one winner left on my 10lb claim and now Nigel and my agent have said that I have to wait until Ballyandy on Thursday so it would be even better to ride out my 10lb claim by completing the hat-trick on him.”
Having grown up in and around Middleham, Lambert initially set his sights on carving out a career on the Flat. However, those ambitions soon changed following a conversation with Grand National and multiple Festival-winning rider Carl Llewellyn.
Lambert said: “Through my aunt and uncle I met Mark Johnston’s wife Deidre and I went and rode out there for a bit when I got time off from doing my A-levels.
“The jockey coach who used to work there, Russ Kennemore, said ‘you will be too big to be a Flat jockey’ and as I love Jump racing I thought I would have a go trying be a Jump jockey.
“Through a family friend I rang Carl Llewellyn and they all said Nigel is renowned for getting young riders going and that if you are good enough he will give you the chances.
"I went down there on New Year’s Day three and a bit years ago and walked into the yard with brand new trainers thinking it was a smart idea, but they quickly got turned into Wellington boots! Since then I’ve not looked back.”
When it comes to Twiston-Davies, the Stow-on-the-Wold-based rider feels he could not have found a better trainer to help him launch his career.
Describing the dual Grand National and Gold Cup winning trainer as the “ideal boss”, he added: “It is not really like a job as it is like being part of a big family. I wake up every morning and I’m always excited about going to work.
“He is just the ideal boss. He is so fair and he says it how it is. He will fight your corner to as many owners as possible and he will try and give you as many chances as possible.
“If you make a mistake he doesn’t hold back and he will tell you straight away what you did wrong but then it goes under the bridge.
“He won’t hold a grudge against you as he understands you can’t get it right every time when you are starting out.”
Not only has Lambert got plenty of praise for Twiston-Davies, but he is also thankful of the support he has received from multiple Grade One-winning rider Sam Twiston-Davies, Nigel’s son.
Lambert added: “Sam is like a mentor. Every ride he will give you all the advice before and he will tell you what you did right or wrong.
“It makes it so much easier to learn when you are surrounded by people like him, Carl Llewellyn and Nigel.
“In my opinion Sam is the best jockey in the weighing room. I thought Sam would ride him at Cheltenham but he is a big team player and I’m very grateful to them all.”
Although Lambert has formed a solid partnership with Ballyandy on the track he has revealed that he thought his agent was joking the first time he was booked to ride him.
He said: “The first time I rode him at Aintree I was looking at the declarations all morning on my phone but I thought I was going to be riding another elsewhere.
“I stopped looking at my phone as I never thought I would be riding Ballyandy but then my agent rang me and Nigel has had a genius idea and we are going to take 10lbs off Ballyandy with you.
“I thought it was a joke as he can be good at winding you up but he was right, to my delight.”
While Ballyandy ran well in defeat on his first two starts under Lambert much of his recent revival has coincided with connections deciding to try him over an extended two miles and seven furlongs.
He said: “The owners (Options O Syndicate) said he owes us nothing and if he doesn’t do it over this trip he can have a happy retirement as he has been a great servant.
“We went to Fakenham bearing that in mind but what he did there took me by surprise as well as everyone else. I didn’t realise quite how far he won by at Fakenham and that was unbelievable.
“The one race for him at Cheltenham was the Pertemps. He got into the last qualifier at Chepstow and we thought if he qualifies brilliant and we can have a great day out at Cheltenham but he ended up winning well again.
“I thought Fakenham was my day in the sun with him but he has continued his rejuvenation.”
Not only would victory be a milestone moment for Lambert, but he claims it would be made all the more sweeter if he could deliver such a success for Ballyandy’s long serving groom Gemma McQuillan, who has been by his side for more than five years.
He said: “Everyone going there thinks their horse has got a good chance but the form that he has shown since stepping up to three miles has been great and I’m going there with every hope that he is going to run a brilliant race.
“He doesn’t ride like an 11-year-old horse that has been doing it for years. He is always happy to go and he works like a steam train up the gallops. He is just a bonny horse.
“Gemma, who looks after him absolutely adores him and wraps him in cotton wool every day and to do it for her at The Festival would make it even better."
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