A trio of West Ham United stars have been given some unique insights into the Cheltenham Festival by a former leading amateur jockey. Mark Noble, Jarrod Bowen and Aaron Cresswell sat down with Katie Walsh to find out what it was like to ride a winner at the prestigious National Hunt meeting.
Often an outsider in the horse racing odds during her career, Walsh won the County Hurdle, National Hunt Chase and Champion Bumper, so knows what it takes to triumph at the hugely competitive Festival.
In a recent interview with Betway, Walsh told the Hammers stars that winning at Cheltenham bears some resemblance to succeeding in football.
“It’s a bit like the Premier League for you guys, or to win that,” Walsh said.
“Everyone, when they set out as a trainer or a jockey, they want to ride at Cheltenham and then they want to ride a winner at Cheltenham and it’s extremely hard to do. But that’s what it would probably be like, it’s just an unbelievable feeling.
“It’s just like getting a gold medal or scoring that winning goal, everyone wants to be that person don’t they? You’re doing plenty of that.”
Despite retiring from the saddle after riding Antey to victory at the 2018 Punchestown Festival, Walsh will still be taking a keen interest this year’s big meeting at Cheltenham.
Her husband Ross O’Sullivan saddled Sea Session in the Boodles Hurdle on the opening day and there are plenty of other Irish runners throughout the week.
Walsh told the West Ham players that the Festival is the pinnacle of her sport, and says taking part in the meeting is like competing at the Olympic Games.
With so much on the line at the Festival, Walsh admits that tensions can run high between the jockeys despite their familiarity with each other.
“Some of the lads are different – I would’ve been very talkative,” she added.
“It’s history, if you start thinking about what happened in the first race, you can’t let it affect what’s going to happen for the rest of the day. They’re all supportive to be honest with you.
“Really, it’s an individual sport, but these lads are racing with each other 365 days in a year. They see each other, they’re racing against each other.
“And out there, they don’t give an inch, and they’ll cut the snot off each other, there’ll be rows.”
The competitive nature of the Festival is fuelled the famous Cheltenham roar, which is back with a vengeance now crowds have returned to the event.
Walsh acknowledges that the jockeys get an adrenaline buzz from the crowd’s urgings – a factor that also plays a key role in professional football.
This point was amusingly recognised by Noble, after Walsh told him that having crowds back in sporting events is hugely positive.
“The thing is Katie, you probably can’t hear your manager or your trainer screaming at you,” said Noble. “When we had no crowd, we could hear our manager (David Moyes) the whole game!”