Davy Russell is looking forward to the noise. The sound of the weigh room, the tremolo of comings and goings, the call for the next race and the tap, tap, tap of leather boots heading out the door.
He’s looking forward to the sound of stirrups being adjusted, final instructions being given (not too many!), the ripple of applause as horses leave the parade ring and the collective intake of breath as the starter takes position.
Most of all he’s looking forward to hearing the Cheltenham roar again.
You know the one.
The one when the tapes go up for the first race of the week and the one that welcomes heroes back to the winners’ enclosure.
That one. Especially that one.
“You could never tire of that,” he says. “Every time is different, every one is special.
“The way it’s designed, the way the crowd is in on top of you, the walk back down.
“You don’t get that in any other racecourse. You have to walk past the crowd that have just roared you up the hill, now they roar you back down.
“You can’t really replicate that anywhere else.”
Last year he watched the Festival on TV at home in Youghal as he recovered from a serious neck injury.
It was an injury that could’ve ended his career, one that required lengthy periods of rehab and all number of screws inserted to get him right.
But there was plenty to come back for.
In particular, Tiger Roll, who will have his final run in Wednesday’s Cross-Country race and also Galvin, who is a leading fancy for Friday’s Gold Cup.
And despite the odds, Russell never doubted he would return.
“Once the doctors said I could get back, that was good enough for me,” he says.
“It was a long year, but it’s great to get back there.
“Last year… I wanted to be there and I wanted to be riding, but I kinda knew in time and I was prepared for it.”
His love affair with Cheltenham started as a kid with the stories brought back from the Cotswolds by his father Jerry each year.
Then there was Dawn Run and Jonjo O’Neill and that unforgettable late charge up the hill in the 1986 Gold Cup.
“Dawn Run was unbelievable,” he says. “Another horse that made a big impression was Lovely Citizen (in the 1991 Foxhunters’ Chase).
“We knew the trainer Eugene O’Sullivan and we knew Lovely Citizen from point-to-points every Sunday, so that was special.
“I suppose it was inspiring that one day you could be standing in a field in Dromahane with a horse, the next thing the horse could running be in Cheltenham.
“It felt like we could all do it.
“Same with Shuil Ar Aghaidh, who won the Stayers’ (in 1993). He was trained in Dungarvan not far from us in Youghal, so you knew it was possible.”
His first ride at the Festival was Toni’s Tip for Ferdy Murphy in the 2000 Kim Muir when still listed as Mr D N Russell.
“A fella by the name of Tom O’Mahony put my name forward to Ferdy,” he says.
“I had ridden winners for Tom in point-to-points and he only lives out the road from Youghal.
“He was a bloodstock agent, he bought a lot of horses for Ferdy and would’ve had a connection to the owners of Toni’s Tip.”
Russell rode the horse at Carlisle a few weeks beforehand and was beaten into second by Adrian Maguire on Radiation.
But Carlisle on a Monday in February is a world away from Cheltenham in March.
“I had ridden in Punchestown, but nothing like this, you had to find your feet very fast,” he says.
The race itself went by in a flash with Russell and Toni’s Tip coming in sixth.
“I couldn’t believe how fast they were going. I was off the bridle so early,” he says.
“It all happened so quick, it was there and gone before I knew it.”
It would be another six years before he tasted his first Festival success with Native Jack in the 2006 Cross-Country Chase.
He came back into the weighroom and wrote his name on the wall beside that of Charlie Swan and three-time Champion Hurdle winner Istabraq.
“The first one goes by very quick and you don’t realise it, and you’re back in the weigh room before you know it.” he says.
“As time goes on you appreciate it more.”
Once he started riding winners there, he couldn’t stop.
From 2006 to 2018 he had at least one winner every single year at the Festival and his tally now stands at 22.
Among the many highlights is Tiger Roll.
“I’ve ridden some very good horses, but I’ve never ridden a horse like him,” he says.
“He’s just a very intelligent horse, he knows what he’s doing and he enjoys the limelight too.”
Russell’s story is tangled up with Tiger.
They won the Triumph in 2014 on a day when Russell also won the Gold Cup with Lord Windermere.
It was a day of redemption for the jockey after losing his job as retained rider to owner Michael O’Leary just a few months earlier.
With Tiger Roll he went on to win back-to-back Aintree Grand Nationals in 2018 and 2019.
There might’ve been a hat-trick in 2020 but Covid put paid to that.
Last year O’Leary scratched the horse from the race in response to the weights and the same happened again this season.
It means the 12-year-old will have his last run at Cheltenham on Wednesday, back where it all began for Tiger and Russell.
“I’d love to partner Tiger Roll in his final run, he’s been a life-changing horse for me,” he says.
“Everywhere I go people ask me about Tiger Roll. People who might have no interest in racing at all.
“There are a lot of jockeys who’ve had great careers and not won a Grand National, I suppose Tiger brought me to a different level.
“He’s in great form and working well and he loves it around there.”
Russell worked Tiger over a few of the Cross-Country obstacles earlier this season and there’s confidence in the camp.
Tiger Roll is going for an astonishing sixth win at the Festival having previously landed the National Hunt Chase under Lisa O’Neill and enjoyed three Cross-Country wins with Keith Donoghue on board.
Will there be tears if Tiger wins again?
“Not from me anyway,” he says, laughing.
Russell admits the horse was a big factor in his drive to return to the racetrack.
The neck injury was the most serious of his career and that’s saying something.
Over the years he’s broken both collarbones, both eye-sockets, both wrists, both heels and dislocated both ankles.
He has also broken his nose, his cheekbone, some teeth, cracked a shoulder blade, punctured a lung, suffered a bruised heart and then most worryingly of all, last season, broken his neck.
Frankly, he’s very fortunate to be walking.
But after almost a full year off the track he returned and picked up exactly where he left off, riding winners.
At Christmas he landed the Grade One Savills Chase with a vintage ride, timed to perfection to pip A Plus Tard.
Something similar in Friday’s Gold Cup would do him more than nicely.
“It was just fantastic, just a great day. The only thing that took from it a little bit was there was no crowd,” says the 42-year-old.
“You’re shouting at yourself, you can hear the echo of your own cheers.
“It will be different at Cheltenham with the noise, I’m looking forward to that.”
Galvin has progressed since winning the National Hunt Chase 12 months ago while in the care of Ian Ferguson.
He finished a close second to Frodon at Down Royal on his seasonal return before his stunning Leopardstown win and goes to Cheltenham with a huge chance.
“He’s kept on improving,” says Russell.
“We always thought he was a nice horse. He was a bit highly strung, so we were always trying to relax him.
“He needs loads of gaps between his runs because he can be quite hard on himself, when he runs and in between runs.
“But he’s getting older and wiser. He’s channelling that energy a little bit better.
“Last year we saw that he stayed really well and he had a liking for the track.
“He has stepped it up with every run and we know he stays.”
Russell has other good chances this week and one he thinks will go close is Au Fleuron if he gets into the Coral Cup.
“He’s unexposed and he’s been keeping good company and maybe his handicap mark could be very competitive,” he says.
“He’ll be stepping up in trip which I think will suit as well. If he doesn’t get into the Coral Cup I think he’d have a huge chance in the Martin Pipe.”
Last year was the strangest Cheltenham. No crowds, no Gordon Elliott, no Davy Russell. All for very different reasons.
Now they’re all back and there have even been a few Cheltenham preview nights here and there around the country — a sure sign that nature is healing.
Much has changed since he first rode at the Cheltenham Festival back in 2000.
He was 20 then, single, green and had rarely been out of the country.
Now he’s 42, married, a father of five and one of the most successful jockeys in the history of jumps racing.
The hair has some grey in it and the cigarettes have been replaced by vaping, but the hunger for winners is still the same.
That hasn’t changed.
As for retirement and Cheltenham and all that?
This could be the last time, only he knows. He’s certainly been asked enough times about it.
But whatever happens he will relish every moment.
“The thing about this game, you never know when it could be your last ride,” he says.
“It could be today, it could be in two years, it could be in 10 years. You just have to enjoy it.”
He will. Especially if he hears that roar in the winners’ enclosure again.
Bring on the noise.
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