Still dancing to his own beat on greatest stage

RACING INTERVIEW BARRY GERAGHTY:The Co Meath jockey, who is defined by his ability to deliver on the big day, gives BRIAN O'CONNORhis assessment of his mouth-watering book of rides

IT IS a dozen years since Barry Geraghty sat in the sauna ahead of his first Cheltenham Festival ride. Sitting alongside the then 19-year-old, also trying to wring more moisture from already wrung bodies, were a pair of senior riders. One was the journeyman jockey, Tom Jenks. The other was Geraghty’s boyhood hero, Richard Dunwoody, coming to the end of a legendary career. They discussed a scientific breakthrough that had come on the market a year previously.

“I remember we talked about Viagra!” Geraghty grins. “It’s certainly a long time ago because I did 9-12 on Fishin Joella in the Coral Cup.”

Fishin Joella finished fifth. A year later Geraghty was cruelly denied a first festival success. Native Dara shot clear on the turn-in of the Coral Cup and looked all over the winner. Seemingly from nowhere though, What’s Up Boys streaked through to touch the Irish hopes off on the line.

The memory still makes Geraghty wince.

He’d wait longer now before making his move, not get so caught up in the moment. Native Dara’s trainer Noel Meade memorably said at the time he’d have jumped off the Cheltenham stands had he not finally broken his festival duck the day before. Geraghty’s reaction was more determinedly prosaic.

“Cheltenham is a monster. It really is. Every major sport has its really big stage and this is ours,” he says. “And there is pressure that comes with that. But it is how you deal with all of that which is important. You can’t let the occasion get the better of you and get swallowed up by the hype and the build-up. If you’re at the start worrying that ‘this is Cheltenham’ then you’re in trouble. You have to remember these are just horse races, the same thing we do every day. And the calmer you are, the better you are.”

It was 2002 when Cheltenham’s hordes discovered how the young Co Meath jockey’s attitude had evolved. “Pressure is for tyres,” Geraghty once memorably remarked and there was an assurance to the way he steered Moscow Flyer to Arkle glory that confirmed the presence of a major new talent in the jockeys room.

Dunwoody was retired by then and Geraghty was at the centre of a “brat pack” of emerging Irish youngsters.

There have been 18 more festival victories since that Arkle: a minimum of one a year, every year. Every major pot has fallen to the wryly amiable rider at least once: a Gold Cup, a Champion Hurdle, a World Hurdle and three Champion Chases. The first of them, Moscow Flyer in 2003, presaged a hot-streak that included an Aintree National and even an RTÉ Sports Personality Of The Year Award for the Young Turk who was always good for a quote and a quip.

Geraghty will be 32 this year. Hardly at the veteran stage yet but he’s waved bye-bye to any notions of being an enfant terrible. Instead there is all the evidence of a professional at the very top of his game. No jockey goes into the festival in hotter form.

Non-stop shuttling across the Irish Sea from his Ratoath home has been a feature of Geraghty’s life since becoming first jockey to Nicky Henderson at Lambourn three years ago. But this season has seen the partnership in remarkable form. Henderson has saddled even more winners than Paul Nicholls, breathing new life into a trainers’ championship that had turned into a solo show. As a result Geraghty’s strike rate in Britain has been over 30 per cent. The intriguing thought ahead of next week’s action is that despite such impressive statistics both men are defined by their ability to deliver on the big day.

Henderson only has three more to match Fulke Walwyn’s all-time tally of 40 festival winners and admits this is the best ever team he has sent to Prestbury Park. Typically the 62-year-old Englishman admits to being a bag of nerves at the thought of what lies ahead. His jockey is a different kettle of fish.

If sport actually reveals rather than builds character, then its history is littered with examples of those who wilt under pressure and those who thrive. Greg Norman might have had the raw talent but Nick Faldo had the stomach for a scrap. The current Arsenal team may have the flair but it is Man U’s best that have that vital touch of dog in them. Sometimes even the very best win in spite of themselves: think of Cork falling over the line in last year’s football All-Ireland.

Geraghty, though, is one of those who obviously relishes it when the pressure-cooker is fairly rattling off the hob: which is precisely why he will be the man to have on-side next week. The strength of Henderson’s squad, plus high-profile Irish rides including the Champion Chaser, Big Zeb, guarantees that. But the confidence coming down the reins to those horses is an unquantifiable but definite plus.

“I would be a glass half-full person, whether it is going into a fence or even something like having to lose weight. I would view stuff like that as a challenge and I try to step up to that. It’s just the way I am,” he says. “When I go out to ride I reckon my horse has a chance of winning. You can call that confidence if you like, or just being positive.”

That outlook has been helped in recent years by the input of Geraghty’s wife, Paula, a nutritionist who has got her husband’s weight under control after he spent much of his 20s struggling with the scales. Far from the dehydrated image of yore, this particular jockey is drinking plenty of water, and eating plenty of grub. It’s just good grub, no rubbish. The impact has been immense in terms of quality of life, so much so the rider hopes to continue his career until he hits another landmark birthday. “I would love to keep going until I’m 40. I love what I do, it’s a good living and it’s a wonderful lifestyle. There aren’t any negatives to it. Okay, there are injuries but injuries happen. Things happen to everyone,” Geraghty declares.

What doesn’t happen to every jockey is facing into Cheltenham with a mouth-watering book of rides including Big Zeb, the Champion Hurdle hope, Oscar Whiskey, and perhaps most excitingly of all, a cadre of Henderson novices that could be dominant across the board.

Geraghty is in a perfect position to judge the respective merits of the novice crops on both sides of the Irish Sea and believes the Irish youngsters face a big ask.

“Oscars Well looks by far the best of the Irish ones and he’s a really good horse, loads of pace, jumps well. He’ll have a big chance.

“A horse like So Young could be anything but he’s untested. He could be an absolute aeroplane or just a small one-engine job. You don’t know. There is a difference you notice between here and England. Over there, it’s quite rare to get real heavy ground so there’s usually a good pace and you find out about these horses.

“In Ireland you get these pedestrian races run on heavy ground and you don’t learn much. I’d say that had a lot to do with Dunguib last year. Philip Fenton was never going to send the horse to England before Cheltenham but that meant he was quickening up in slowly run races on heavy ground. It’s very different in Cheltenham,” he says.

It’s that difference that could be crucial to Big Zeb’s chances of retaining his Champion Chase crown. Victory will put Geraghty just one shy of Pat Taaffe’s all-time record in the race. A defeat to Golden Silver at Punchestown in January was a setback but the jockey is confident better going will be ideal for his horse.

“We beat Golden Silver all out by a length at Christmas. He beat us half a length the last day so there wasn’t that much of a change in terms of form at Punchestown. It went wrong there because the going was tacky and I found myself in front and there to be shot at. I showed my hand too soon,” he remembers.

“But we must have beaten Golden Silver 15 lengths at Cheltenham last year when the ground was good. My lad is a worthy champion. Master Minded impressed in some of his races this season but my fella is the one to beat,” Geraghty adds.

And it is that sort of prospect that will get even this most famously cool of jockeys a little bit more “toey” next week. He likens it to what jockeys feel like before the Grand National, even if going out to ride a 100 to 1 outsider who keeps falling; not going out would be like a 17-year-old young fella watching his 18-year-old pals heading out to a disco and leaving him behind.

“Cheltenham is different. I can tell you how many winners I’ve had at the festival and who they were. I couldn’t tell you the same about Aintree or Punchestown. And any lad riding is the same,” Geraghty says.

Not many can look back on so many though. Geraghty has even got one more festival winner than Dunwoody managed and there is the promise of much more to come. The young fella in the sauna has gone out to the disco in a big way.

Barry Geraghty Factfile

Born:September 16th, 1979.

First winner:Stagalier (1997).

First big race winner:Miss Orchestra (Midlands National, 1998).

Aintree Grand National winner:Monty's Pass (2003).

Champion jockey in Ireland:1999/2000 and 2003/2004.

Cheltenham Festival winners (19):

2002: Moscow Flyer (Arkle Challenge Trophy).

2003: Youlneverwalkalone (William Hill Trophy); Inching Closer (Pertemps Hurdle); Moscow Flyer (Queen Mother Champion Chase); Spectroscope (Triumph Hurdle); Spirit Leader (County Hurdle).

2004: Iris’s Gift (Stayers’ Hurdle).

2005: Moscow Flyer (Queen Mother Champion Chase); Kicking King (Cheltenham Gold Cup).

2006: Star De Mohaison (Royal and SunAlliance Chase); Sky’s The Limit (Coral Cup).

2007: Cork All Star (Champion Bumper).

2008: Finger onthe Pulse (Jewson Novices’ Chase).

2009: Forpadydeplasterer (Arkle Challenge Trophy); Punjabi (Champion Hurdle); Zaynar (Triumph Hurdle).

2010: Big Zeb (Queen Mother Champion Chase); Spirit River (Coral Cup); Soldatino (Triumph Hurdle).