Tony McCoy and Jonjo O’Neill wrestle the Cheltenham Gold Cup back from their 2012 winner, Synchronised, at Jackdaws Castle. Photograph: PA Wire/PA
Where could one rather be on a sunny morning in early spring than here at Jonjo O’Neill’s stable up a gorgeous Cotswold hill, chewing over running plans for the Cheltenham Festival? Admittedly the 64-year-old trainer expects to field a smaller team than usual but he has two good ones for the Gold Cup and his runners are hitting form at just the right time so that every one of his handicappers will be worth a second look.
The tricky detail needing to be sorted out is who will ride? Barry Geraghty, the jockey retained by O’Neill’s principal owner, JP McManus, is injured and will miss next week’s Festival. A discussion about who will replace him is only just beginning because, without saying so in public, Geraghty nursed hopes that he might actually recover in time. He gave up on Saturday only when it was confirmed that he had three broken ribs, fewer than he had been told but still enough to keep him out until April.
O’Neill expects that Mark Walsh will ride More Of That in the Gold Cup while Aidan Coleman will be on Minella Rocco, since that was the arrangement in last month’s Irish Gold Cup. Both are top-class but there is a wistful mood to the conversation because O’Neill still sees quite a lot of the man who was his principal jockey until two years ago, the man now known as Sir Anthony McCoy.
“He was up the other morning,” says O’Neill of a session in which McCoy rode a handful of horses over some practice fences. “Jesus, he’s brilliant, brilliant to watch. I’ve been in a very privileged position because I probably see the best of him, when he comes up schooling and there’s nobody else there. I just get such a kick out of it.
“There was one that made a bit of a mistake at the first or second fence and they were trapping, like,” a gesture here indicating the kind of speed rarely attempted on the schooling grounds. “He was going just as if he never gave up. He still wants it, I’d say.
“We were sat this morning, having breakfast. I said, lads, look! Small breakfast! He might be back for Friday at Cheltenham!” McCoy laughed it off, apparently, but O’Neill was left thinking: “I bet you wish you bloody were!”
“Listen, there’s a time to give up. [But] he needn’t have given up because he doesn’t have a problem with his bottle or his timing or his expertise. He is as good today as he was five years ago.”
In a recent interview McCoy considered offering an arm in exchange for the ride on More Of That. Few jockeys would care to make that swap, even in their imagination, for the chance to get on a horse that fell last time out. But in fairness, More Of That was running a huge race at Leopardstown when he came down at the final fence. “It wasn’t a good race,” O’Neill says. “But he did travel and jump, which we hadn’t seen [this season]. We’re going for the Gold Cup and we maybe shouldn’t be but, if he gets back in form, he’s entitled to.”
The bulk of O’Neill’s Festival team is made up of handicappers and not necessarily the most willing handicappers, at that. Mad Jack Mytton is “very frustrating”, Champagne At Tara “has done nothing but disappoint us” and Holywell is “a right monkey … a little bugger”. But O’Neill has masses of experience at sweetening up such characters for the big day and does not object to a bit of personality in his horses.
“I think you have to be a bit of a rogue and a bit of a hustler to win at Cheltenham, because they’re rough races. Some horses, the more trouble you get in, the more they love it. They get aggressive about it.”
Adding to the importance of this Festival, O’Neill may be able to provide a ride in one of the amateur races for his 19-year-old son, also Jonjo but known as Jonji around here to avoid confusion. Did he encourage his boy to try life as a jockey? “Oh certainly not, no. I’d steer him away from it if I had the choice.
“And I keep telling him all about the bad times and the bad things that’ll happen. I think the more bad things I was telling him, the more he wanted to do it. It would be unfair of me to deny him the chance of doing it. He would always regret it. I wouldn’t do that to anybody.” As so often in the conversation, O’Neill is smiling as he says: “Let him find out the hard way.”
Meanwhile, Willie Mullins had a mixed time of it with the handful of horses he took to Leopardstown for the annual pre-Cheltenham schooling session that took place there after racing on Sunday. Bellshill, who fell at Leopardstown’s final fence when he ran there last month, fell again, this time at an early obstacle, as he worked with Royal Caviar and Djakadam.
Mullins put a brave face on the incident but Bellshill cannot now be considered a certain runner in the RSA Chase a week on Wednesday, especially since the trainer described him as “a little stiff” immediately after his tumble. “However, Rule Supreme fell here one year, went off and won the RSA after,” Mullins continued. “We’ll see what he’s like. I’ll bring him somewhere else to school if he’s all right.”
Yorkhill was far from flawless in his fencing, jumping left at one fence and taking off a stride too early at another, but warmed to his task and was travelling with obvious power as Ruby Walsh tried to pull him up after completing his circuit. There was renewed Twitter speculation that Mullins might consider switching him to the Champion Hurdle but the trainer said the JLT Novice Chase remains the target.
Mullins reported of Yorkhill: “Ruby said he went down to the first one down the back, jumped huge, frightened himself and then he said he was huge at the next one but he said after that he was fantastic. When they were going along a little bit quicker, he was much better.”
The Carlow trainer added that he “couldn’t have asked for more” from the Arkle-bound Royal Caviar or Djakadam, who has the Gold Cup as his target. He mentioned the National Hunt Chase as a possibility for Arbre De Vie but said the handicapper Blazer might stay in Ireland, where he is better treated.
Tips for Monday’s races, by Chris Cook
Lingfield
2.20 Arthington 2.50 Flemcara 3.20 Ardmayle 3.50 Old Salt 4.20 Matrow’s Lady 4.50 Flugzeug 5.20 Sea Wall
Southwell
2.00 Stage One 2.30 Midnight Jade 3.00 Earlshill 3.30 Grace Tara 4.00 Starlight Court 4.30 Willyegolassiego
Wolverhampton
2.10 Moi Aussie 2.40 Loumarin 3.10 Trotter 3.40 Lacan 4.10 Simply Me (nap) 4.40 Powered (nb) 5.10 Fabricate 5.40 Enfolding
