RACING INTERVIEW JESSICA HARRINGTON: BRIAN O'CONNORtalks to the Moone trainer who has put dreams of Classic glory on the Flat on hold as Cheltenham looms

AS QUESTIONS go, asking Jessica Harrington if she’d prefer a Cheltenham success or a classic victory on the Flat is more than a little loaded.

As her Grade One jumpers Oscars Well and Bostons Angel settle into their temporary base ahead of next week’s festival assignments, they have left a couple of callow youngsters behind in Harrington’s Moone stables.

One of them is the unbeaten Group One winner Pathfork, a major fancy for May’s 2,000 Guineas and a colt whose value runs into millions. The other is Laughing Lashes who is being aimed at the 1,000 Guineas.

Harrington could be forgiven for considerably more phone calls home than normal during the week ahead. But her focus remains resolutely on a festival that has provided her with the most memorable days of her career.

“It’s a very mean question,” she laughs. “I’ll just have to take both!”

The presence of a pair of Classic hopefuls, however, is just the latest manifestation of a remarkable life with horses of all kinds. The former top-class three-day event rider who broke the mould in terms of a woman training in Ireland, and then master-minded the career of a modern National Hunt legend, has added yet another string to her bow.

At 64 – “there’s no point lying, my birthday keeps appearing in the paper!” – it is a hugely exciting development. And yet press her on the point and she might just plump for the Cheltenham option: especially if that winner was Oscars Well.

Unquestionably the top novice hurdler in Ireland so far this season, Oscars Well brings a pair of Grade One victories, including a faultless performance in last month’s Deloitte, to Wednesday’s Neptune Investment Novices’ Hurdle.

And yet the hype machine that so characterises many top Irish youngsters arriving at the festival is purring in a curiously low gear about Oscars Well.

“He has crept up on everyone. There wasn’t even much of a bang after he won at Leopardstown. He was still 7 to 1 after that. So he’s been something of a forgotten horse,” Harrington declares.

Unfussy, professional and with an underlying brilliance that was obvious in the Deloitte, Oscars Well is starting to conjure comparisons with the horse that will always be synonymous with his trainer.

Like Moscow Flyer, Oscars Well was unable to win a bumper although Harrington says: “He actually managed to finish second in one so he did better than Moscow who only managed a third in a bumper. No doubt it is something to do with their trainer making mistakes.”

Hard to believe as it might be now but Moscow Flyer was also something of a slow-burner on the Irish racing public’s consciousness. Even when serving it up to Istabraq over hurdles, he remained something of a forgotten horse too. That is until he switched to fences.

Making comparisons between the two may be unfair to Oscars Well but Harrington is not one for mannered attempts to deflect attention from her new star’s chance next week.

“There is a serious feeling of expectation but with novices there is the issue of there being no cross-related form. If he gets beat, it’s simply because the English novices are better. So there is that little bit less pressure,” she explains.

Pressure is relative though. The country might be in the midst of a financial meltdown that has plunged so many into despair but Harrington believes the buzz about Cheltenham remains intact.

“I think it is very much up to par. I think there’s a strong challenge from Ireland. The English challenge may be stronger – at least they think it is – but there are some good horses going over.

“I think what has changed is that not so many are going over. Somebody like Noel Meade doesn’t have as many going. But what we have is quality over quantity. Before, people were thinking ‘Oh we think we’re good enough, let’s go and make a week of it.’ Now it is about the quality,” she argues.

Harrington’s other big hope is Bostons Angel who tackles the RSA Chase, a gruelling test for a novice that the trainer believes will suit her horse.

“It’s a race that can be hard on a six-year-old, or even a five-year-old. But Bostons Angel is seven and very tough. He keeps surprising us. His only bad run was in the Drinmore and that was off an interrupted preparation.

“Robbie Power rides mine. He’s a very good horseman. Horses jump well for him. He wins races out in the country by getting them jumping and he’s one of those riders who’s better in a big race rather than an ordinary one. I’m not worried he hasn’t won at Cheltenham before. He’s got close. All he needs is a little bit of luck,” Harrington says.

A little bit of luck and she might get that cross-code double up too.