Adam Houghton talks to Sporting Life columnist Daryl Jacob about all things Cheltenham Festival, from the highs and lows he’s enjoyed at the meeting to his big hopes this year.
Next week will mark 18 years since Daryl Jacob had his first ride at the Cheltenham Festival when partnering the Sally Alner-trained Free Gift in the Foxhunter Chase. Sent off the 8/1 fourth choice of punters, it wasn’t to be for Free Gift as he trailed in fourteenth, but it was all part of the learning curve for a rider who has been a fixture at the meeting in the near two decades since.
It was a particularly eye-opening experience for Jacob simply because he’d never even been to the Festival until that afternoon. Like any first-time visitor to Prestbury Park – jockey, trainer, owner or punter – Jacob found himself in total awe of his surroundings and everything else that makes the meeting so unique.
“It was crazy because I’d never witnessed crowds as big as that at a racecourse,” Jacob explained. “I remember walking in and just going ‘wow’. I could see why they call it magical with the cheers, the roars and the excitement. There’s so much adrenaline and the whole place was absolutely buzzing, even in the weighing room.”
Jacob’s path to the weighing room was rather different to many of his colleagues. He isn’t from a racing background and came to the sport relatively late, so it follows that his memories of the Cheltenham Festival don’t go as far back as you might expect.
There is one that definitely sticks out from before his own time as a Cheltenham Festival jockey, though – Hardy Eustace’s victory in the 2003 Royal & SunAlliance Novices’ Hurdle.
Hardy Eustace later developed into a high-class hurdler, notably winning the Champion Hurdle in 2004 and 2005, but it was the man who was on board when he gained his first success at the Festival that made it such a significant occasion for Jacob.
The jockey in question was Kieran Kelly with whom Jacob shared a close friendship back home in Ireland. Jacob was aged just 19 at the time of Hardy Eustace’s first Cheltenham victory and Kelly himself was only 24.
However, whereas Jacob has gone on to enjoy a long and illustrious career in the saddle, Kelly tragically had his life cut short after suffering serious head injuries in a fall at Kilbeggan just a few months after his Festival triumph.
“I suppose that’s the first memory that really sticks out to me at Cheltenham,” Jacob said when recalling the day his late friend guided Hardy Eustace to a typically gritty win, digging deep under pressure in the style that would become his trademark.
“That was a magic day. I lived with Kieran and he was one of my best friends. I remember texting him that night and telling him he was a national hero. We’re going back 20 years and back then it was hard for the Irish horses coming over. It was hard for the Irish to ride a winner or train a winner over here.”
Close calls before Zarkandar delivers
It was six years after Jacob’s first ride at the Cheltenham Festival that he opened his account at the meeting with a few near-misses in between.
One of those agonising defeats has been doing the rounds again on social media recently, largely as part of the discussion about great winning-rides at the Festival.
Jacob looked all set to gain his first Festival winner when his mount Maljimar went clear at the last in the 2009 William Hill Trophy Handicap Chase – hitting a low of 1.09 in-running on the Betfair Exchange – and it was only an inspired Sir Anthony McCoy who could have lifted Wichita Lineman to snatch the prize close home, albeit it was a ride from the 20-times champion jockey which would have been viewed harshly under the new whip rules.
“I wish we had the stick rules we have now back then, he wouldn’t have won it!” Jacob joked when asked to reflect on that defeat. “At the time it was a tough pill to swallow, but I watched the race again afterwards and I wouldn’t have done anything differently if I’m being totally honest.
“Unfortunately, my lad was beaten by a very, very good horse and he would have beaten me quite comfortably if he’d jumped, but he just seemed to miss every jump or every second jump. It was A.P. at his brilliant best and it’s probably one of the best rides there has ever been.
“My horse ran a career best, so he’s given it everything and we’ve done everything to win it. We just weren’t good enough on the day.”
The young Jacob was good enough that he was entrusted with some big rides at the Cheltenham Festival at a relatively early stage in his career, notably by Robert and Sally Alner, who really helped to get his career going.
They trained the first superstar horse with whom Jacob was associated, namely The Listener, who was eleventh in the 2007 Cheltenham Gold Cup having previously given the rider his first Grade One success in the Lexus Chase at Leopardstown a few months earlier. Jacob won three Grade One races on The Listener altogether, while he also won top-level events on the likes of Me Voici and Reve de Sivola in those early years.
However, it’s the Cheltenham Festival where all jockeys are judged on their success and it clearly meant a lot to Jacob when he finally kicked that door down with victory aboard the Paul Nicholls-trained Zarkandar in the 2011 Triumph Hurdle.
Explaining how Zarkandar came to be his ride, Jacob said: “Paul bought Zarkandar from the Aga Khan and he ran in the Adonis at Kempton first-time-out. Ruby [Walsh, jockey] rode something else in the Adonis that day and I rode Zarkandar. Back then he did have slight jumping issues, but he was obviously a very good horse on the Flat and his class came through when he won the Adonis.
“We chucked him in at the deep end in the Triumph. Realistically, did we think he was good enough? Probably not, but for whatever reason he just grabbed hold of the bridle that day and travelled really well. He hit a slight flat spot coming down the hill, but once he met the rising ground again he really took off. He gave me a great ride and it was obviously no fluke because he went on to prove that he was a good champion in his own right.
“Whenever you get into horse racing, you want to be at these big meetings and that’s what I’ve always said. I’ve always wanted to be a big-race jockey and to ride as many big winners as I can rather than being a champion jockey or anything like that. I want to be involved with the best horses at the best meetings.
“You want to be riding every year at Cheltenham first of all. It’s just great to be there when you’re younger but, once you’ve been there a few times, you need that winner and you want that winner. To get my first one there was huge.”
A Festival like no other in 2014
It was three years before Jacob doubled his tally at the Cheltenham Festival and in that time he’d been promoted to number one jockey at Nicholls’ Ditcheat yard after Walsh made the decision to base himself in Ireland full time.
There is inevitably pressure that comes with such a high-profile role and that was magnified at the 2014 Festival, perhaps the most up-and-down week in Jacob’s life as a jockey.
After drawing a blank on the first two days of the meeting, Jacob then suffered a frustrating defeat when Southfield Theatre was beaten a nose by Fingal Bay in the Pertemps Final on day three. The final day of the meeting didn’t start much better, either, as he was denied a clear shot at glory in the Triumph Hurdle when his stirrup leather broke on Calipto.
Jacob did eventually get off the mark for the week when Lac Fontana won the County Hurdle, but that proved to be just a momentary reprieve. On the way to post for the very next race, the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle, Jacob’s mount, Port Melon, cocked his jaw and deposited the rider on a tarmacked spectator area after crashing through a plastic rail.
The result for Jacob was a broken elbow, leg and knee – a painful end to an eventful Festival.
“That was a proper rollercoaster of emotions that week!” Jacob summed up. “That was a tough week, but you’ve got to try and be very level-headed when you’ve got big rides at Cheltenham. You can’t afford to get too high or too low, because you’re always thinking about the next race and potentially the next winner.
“You’ve got me thinking about it now, when you go through everything that happened that week, but I was sort of oblivious to it all at the time. I thought I was alright actually [after the fall]! I broke my elbow, my leg and my knee, but I genuinely thought I was alright.
“I remember Alice Plunkett coming down to see me and I told her I’d be fine because I had a ride in the Gold Cup later in the day. She looked at me and said ‘you’re not fine’, but I didn’t see it that way. I was wanting to get up, but the medics obviously saw things differently to what I could see. I couldn’t feel it at the time – it’s amazing what adrenaline can do!”
No point in dwelling on the past
It’s clear that Jacob prefers not to dwell on the inevitable disappointments that come your way in the life of a jockey, and that positive outlook has almost certainly contributed to his longevity and desire to keep riding at the highest level as he approaches his fortieth birthday this summer.
It’s clear that a lot of hard work has gone into it, too, both in and out of the saddle and now more than ever as the biggest four days of the year come into view.
Summing up his approach to life and riding, Jacob said: “I’m a positive person and what’s done is done. The past is the past and you can never get that back. You’ve just got to keep looking forward. Sally Alner would always say tomorrow is a new day, turn over the page and start a new chapter. That’s the way it is with me.
“You’ve got to be prepared for every situation that Cheltenham could throw at you. It's part of the homework you do in preparation for these big rides. All the best jockeys – Ruby, A.P. and Dickie [Richard Johnson] – they would do so much prep before the Festival and you have to do it.
“You can’t just sit there and hope you’re on the best horse. You have to be aware of who you want to follow and where you want to be. If Plan A doesn’t go right, you’ve got Plan B, Plan C and quite often you get to Plan Z at Cheltenham.”
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Jacob didn’t need to deviate too far from Plan A when he enjoyed his third and most recent winner at the Cheltenham Festival as Concertista ran away with the 2020 Dawn Run Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle, storming clear from the last to win by six and a half lengths (watch the replay above).
“Whoosh,” is the word Jacob used to describe her finishing spurt – “a Champion Hurdler wouldn’t have caught her that day!” he added – and that was a particularly significant success for the rider as it was his first at the Festival in the colours of Simon Munir and Isaac Souede, his main employers in recent years.
Big hopes heading into next week
Munir and Souede look to hold a very strong hand heading to this year’s Festival, though several of their best horses are in the care of Willie Mullins and it will be his stable jockey, Paul Townend, who gets first pick at Cheltenham ahead of Jacob.
That means the rides on El Fabiolo and Blue Lord – both horses Jacob has won Grade One races on already this season – are unlikely to be going spare, and it’s likely to be the same situation with Impaire Et Passe, but Jacob isn’t worrying and will be happy to pick up whichever mounts fall his way.
“I’m feeling quite relaxed about it,” he said. “I’ve ridden the majority of horses that Willie is sending over here. I’ve ridden them at home or I’ve ridden them on the racecourse, so I know them quite well and I’m in a lucky position where I get to fill in the gaps if I’m needed.”
As for the horses Jacob is all but guaranteed to be putting his leg across at Cheltenham next week, he nominates two contenders who he is particularly looking forward to teaming up with in the shape of Rouge Vif and Zambella.
“I’m looking forward to riding Rouge Vif for Harry Whittington,” Jacob said. “He runs in the Grand Annual and he’s obviously come down an awful lot in the weights. His last run at Doncaster was a really good run, we were very happy with him. He did a really nice piece of work with me on Sunday around Newbury and I can’t wait to ride him.
“I won a really good handicap on him at Cheltenham a few years ago and I think he’ll run a really big race. Whether he’s good enough to win it, I don’t know, but he’s only got 10-10, so he’s got a lovely weight.
“And Zambella is ultra-consistent. She’s been a rock and she’s a great mare, probably the best mare over fences in Britain. Unfortunately, she got trounced at Huntingdon the last day, but that wouldn’t be her track at all. She prefers to go left-handed and Cheltenham is much better for her.
“I think she’ll run a big race because we’ve trained her a bit differently this season. She hasn’t had the hard campaign that she had going to Cheltenham last year and I think she could run a big race if we do get all this rain next week and it does turn soft. She won’t be far away.”
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