Celebrity owners reveal their love of Cheltenham Festival

11 March 2014

The following copy is available free for reproduction in full or in part. Please credit Channel 4’s Cheltenham Festival coverage accordingly.

 

JAMES NESBITT

Where does your love of racing come from?

It came from a love of show jumping, originally. My late mother and I used to watch the Horse of the Year Show when I was a little kid, and I just loved the excitement of horses jumping, and Raymond Brooks-Ward, the commentator, and the horses – Eddie Macken had one called Boomerang, Paddy McMahon used to ride one called Pennwood Forge Mill.  And then, when I was about 18, my mates, who were all much more into horse racing, began to take me to Cheltenham, so I’ve been going there for years.  I just love it, it’s a sport unlike any other.  Particularly at the Cheltenham Festival, you’ve got tens of thousands of people from all walks of life.  Jump Racing is not the preserve of the upper classes.  All sorts of people come along, and the Irish do so in droves.  And of course everyone’s got favourite horses or favourite jockeys, but unlike most sports where you follow a team or an individual, in horse racing it really is a coming together to celebrate the sport, a magnificent marriage of horse and very courageous jockeys, and I just love it, it speaks to me.

 

What is it about Cheltenham Festival that makes it to special?

It’s all of those things, all the people coming together to celebrate the animal and the jockey giving their all.  It’s the sounds and the smells, the sweat and the mud and the drink and the craic.  It’s just a fantastic place.

 

Have you got any plans for Riverside Theatre [James is a part-owner] regarding Cheltenham?

Riverside Theatre won’t run at Cheltenham.  He doesn’t owe me anything, he’s given me so much joy, but I still think there’s a race left in him. Depending on how he fairs we might take him to Punchestown. Eventually, what I’d love to do before he retires is take him to Down Royal in Northern Ireland and race him there.

 

Do you get nervous before a big race? How does it compare to the nerves before a big performance?

I get much more nervous before a race.  Much more.  Before he won the Ryan Air at Cheltenham Festival I felt sick.  Actually, I think I was sick – yeah, I was sick in the toilets before the race.  But then he won and it was amazing. It was the sweetest feeling, it was a day from the Gods.

 

Obviously he runs in Manchester United colours. If you had to choose between him winning at Cheltenham Festival or United storming up the table to win the league, which would you go for?

Oh God, Cheltenham hands down all day long.  Also, we’ve won the title 20 times, it’s only fair that we give it to someone else now!

 

HARRY REDKNAPP

How did you end up first getting into racing?

I grew up in the East End of London and my old Nan, Maggie Brown, she had a bookmaker that we called ‘Cyril the paper boy’. He was probably about 60, but he was still called Cyril the paper boy.  Cyril used to come around and he would take all the bets - in those days there were no betting shops.  So Cyril was the bookmaker, so my Nan would collect all the bets from all the old girls in our the street – the doubles, the trebles - and Cyril would come round selling the newspaper – Star, News and Standard – and my nan would drop all the bets, put them in a little bag and all put their names on them.  The next day, he would come around and she would get paid if there was any pay-out.  Many a day, I would come home from my school dinner and my Nan would be being put in the back of a Black Maria [a police van] because it was illegal. Anyway, I used to come home from school and my Nan would give me a pin to stick in three races and that would be her three penny double or penny treble, whatever she had.

 

What is it that you love about the sport?

I’ve always loved it, I love a day at the races – I haven’t been for a long time, I always used to go to Wincanton – would never miss it. When I was manager at Bournemouth FC a day out at Wincanton Races was always a great day out for me. I love it, I love the races and going to the races, it’s a great sport, great characters and I’m a big racing fan.  I Love Jump racing, I love Flat racing; I love all racing you know.

 

There’s you, Michael Owen is interested in racing, Fergie and of course Mick Channon. Why do you think so many people in football get into racing?

I don’t know; when I started playing as a young boy at West Ham, everybody was into it, they loved their racing. They would come in every day with their Sporting Life and love it – there was even more support than there is now. They couldn’t afford to buy a racehorse in those days I suppose, but plenty were into their racing and great followers of the sport.

 

How many horses do you own now?

My wife’s not with me so I can tell you the truth!  When Sandra’s here, she thinks I’ve only got one, but no I’ve got a couple with Brian Smart, a nice horse called Moviesta which won at Goodwood last year, it’s a real good three-year-old, four-year-old this year and apparently it’s looking fantastic so we’re ready to go this year and hopefully end up with Royal Ascot.  I’ve got four with Brendan Powell and brought a mare called Sunshine Rays and we bred out of her.  Colin Tinkler looks after her for me and we’ve got several of hers, she’s in foal again now so we keep breeding from her.  I’ve got one called Violets Boy and one called Always Managing and we got a few more now ready to go into training with Brendan Powell.  I started out (as an owner) with David Elsworth when he was at Whitsbury which was local to me in Bournemouth; so it was great, I’d go up there sometimes on a Sunday morning, have a coffee with Elssy, watch the horses on the gallops, you know I enjoyed that.

 

You’ve said in the past that it’s difficult for you to go to Cheltenham – will you be watching the coverage on Channel 4?

Absolutely, I’ll watch it all if I’m anywhere near a television. I might go again. I mean I enjoy going, I just found it got a little bit tricky, when the lads have a drink and you get people pulling you around, jumping all over you, you know.  I didn’t feel that comfortable for the first time.  What I did a couple of times was I got a helicopter from Bournemouth with a couple of mates.  We landed on the course and then had a box - it was fantastic.  So there’s a chance that I might have a day there again. For several years I went, I was lucky enough to go with Michael Tabor and JP McManus, they invited me into their box so I always had that. Then in other years I’d gone on the coach, I took West Ham there when I was the Manager. I am thinking about taking the QPR players there for a day out this year – we’re looking at the possibility of doing that.

 

Have you got any horses that your particularly looking forward to see run at the Festival?

I just love every race to be honest it’s just so open this year - Champion Hurdle, Gold Cup, every race is fantastic.  I look forward to The Morning Line and follow the coverage.  I’ve always enjoyed that and watch that whenever I can.  I love Cheltenham and the way the Irish support it and that Willie Mullins has so much ammunition this year. I would like to see Gary Moore win the big race now that the Henderson horse (Sprinter Sacre) is not running. I think he’s got a big chance obviously now with the favourite Sire de Gurgy.  I’m looking forward to it in general.

 

Yours is a very stressful profession, do you find that racing adds to that stress or does it help you unwind?

No, I enjoy it obviously; it helps me unwind because it’s good fun for me.  The problem I have is I’m a real animal lover and so when they’ve finished… I had a horse with Alan King and then Walter Swinburn and it wasn’t very good and so me and my wife went to a restaurant and we met someone there who knew somebody who had lost their horse and was looking for a replacement.  I offered my horse if it was to be given a good home, and arranged for the horse to be boxed down, delivered down to Dorset.  Then, sadly the lady started sending me all the bills every week for the horse! She thought I was going to keep it for the next 20 years – I mean, it had new shoes and I thought his ain’t right, I can’t do this!  But what do I do, I love the horse and the lady says she can’t afford to keep it, and thought I was going to keep it and she was going ride it.  Anyway I would have kept him myself but was lucky enough to find someone else to look after it and now they have a horse to ride.  That is the problem, I get too attached to them (horses).

 

How does watching your horse win compare to watching your team win?

Well, very similar. The excitement was fantastic that day when Moviesta won at Goodwood, we were jumping around like idiots you know, absolutely loved it, it was a fantastic feeling.  I had been unlucky to be fair. I had a bad two weeks – I lost a nice horse with Dandy Nicholls.  For two years or more, Bryan Smart had it and said it was the best horse he had and hadn’t got anything that could work with it at home.  Then I sent it to Dandy Nicholls because Bryan said every time it ran it didn’t perform, even though on the gallops it was the best he’d ever had.  I sent it to Dandy; Dandy says ‘Harry I’ve not seen anything work like this, this is an absolute machine.’  Runs first time out and was cantering and came last.  Anyway, the next time it run, it has a freak heart attack and died on-course with a young girl jockey on broad. Obviously the horse had always had a heart problem, and as soon as it got under stress, after two or three furlongs, there was obviously no air getting through.  No one had picked it up. So I lost that horse, Arry’s Orse.  And about four days later I went to Taunton. Had a lovely horse with Alan King that we were going to go to Cheltenham with called Bygones in Brig and it was a cert to win at Taunton, I think it was like 5/4 on favourite.  It jumped, come to the first hurdle bright sunshine, it stepped into the hurdle and broke its neck – it went down, that was it and I lost two in a week. So it was a bad week you know – that is the worst part.  I’ve got to be truthful with you, when I see a horse go down I always think well the jockey will get up and I worry about the jockeys, of course I do obviously cause I do worry about the jockeys, but when I see a horse go down as well I think ooh, I just can’t wait to see the horse get up.

 

In your experience is it easier working with racehorses or footballers?

Haha, I don’t know who’s got the most excuses football managers or racehorse trainers!  They could both write a book – a Book of Excuses – wants to go left handed, wants to go right.  You know wants to lead, wants to be held up, wants soft, wants firms.  You know. It’s like football managers, the referee was to blame, I’ve got my best player missing or whatever.

Channel 4 Racing: Cheltenham Festival live March 11 -14 from 8am with afternoon racing live from 12:35pm

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