Any cricketer will tell you that there is no worse place to be than sat in the dressing room, powerless to affect, as a nervy chase unfolds. But how about when one is being run over two miles and fences?
Few are better set to make the comparison than Craig Kieswetter, the former England batter, whose post-playing career has taken him into the heart of the family line in racehorse ownership and breeding, and on Tuesday, on to the Cheltenham Festival, with Arkle contender Il Etait Temps.
“It is exactly like that,” says the T20 World Cup winner. “It's a unique sport in that the levels sort of dissipate as you go down.
“The owner actually has zero control. Then the trainer loses a percentage of control once the horse is saddled and ready to go. Then, even though the jockey has the most control, he's still sitting on a live animal with a brain of its own.”
While Flat racing is king in South Africa, where Kieswetter was raised and is now based, he fell into the National Hunt game during his time playing for Somerset, after he famously lost a set of table tennis to legendary trainer Martin Pipe and then bought a Jumps horse in training at his Pond House yard.
Today, the family operation spans the southern and northern hemispheres, from their farm in the Robertson Valley outside of Cape Town to Barnane Stud in Tipperary, Ireland, and bridges both racing codes.
“In Flat racing, after a minute or two the race is done,” Kieswetter adds. “In Jumps racing you can pretty much go to the bar, order a pint, get halfway through it and your horse is still going round.”
Kieswetter has travelled over to Cheltenham this week, where he promises plenty of Guinness will be drunk and nerves tested as early as Tuesday's second race, when Il Etait Temps lines up in a wide-open renewal of the Arkle on the back of victory in the Irish equivalent at Leopardstown last month.
“He's surprisingly slipped semi under the radar,” Kieswetter says of the six-year-old, who only found his way to the top of the market when long-time favourite Marine Nationale was ruled out through injury last week, and has since been deposed by Gaelic Warrior, who blew out on his last run.
“It sounds ridiculous because he's a dual Grade 1 winner, but I think it's his style of running. He’s a small fellow, he seems like he plods, he's not the most attractive jumper.”
Sceptics point out that the horse’s best runs have each come at Leopardstown, while arguably his two worst have been at the previous two Festivals, and Kieswetter concedes his runner still has plenty to prove on the sport’s biggest stage.
Cheltenham is a really unique place... it takes a special horse to pull off Grade 1 wins there
“Cheltenham is a really unique place, not just for people but for horses as well,” he says. “Taking nothing away from Leopardstown, but you've maybe got 20,000 people there. You go to Cheltenham, especially on the Tuesday, with nearly 80,000 people, it's quite an intimidating place for a person, but I can imagine for a horse as well.
“Then the track itself is very different, it has that severe dip and then severe incline to finish. It does take a special, sturdy horse to pull off Grade 1 wins there.”
While Il Etait Temps is owned in partnership with the South Africa-based Hollywood Syndicate, Barnane Stud have a further two runners in their own colours on Tuesday’s card, with Karia Des Blaises lining up in the Boodles Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle and the popular Echoes In Rain set for her last run in the Mares’s Hurdle before being retired.
“It's probably going to be her final hurrah,” Kieswetter says. “She has earned her new career as a broodmare. She's given us so much fun.”
All three horses are trained by Willie Mullins, the “very, very chilled” doyen of the National Hunt scene, who is bidding for a sixth consecutive leading trainer title at Cheltenham a month after sweeping the board with all eight Grade 1s on offer at the Dublin Racing Festival.
Where does Kieswetter stand on the debate over whether one man’s dominance is harming the sport?
“You can't knock someone, or an operation or a business, for succeeding when they're professional,” he says. “The one thing we've always felt with Willie is that we're getting a fair bite at the apple when we have a runner. He offers every horse he enters the chance to win.”
On Tuesday afternoon, Il Etait Temps looks to have a better chance than most.
The Cheltenham Festival (12-15 March) is one of Britain’s Premier Racedays. To find out more about Premier Racedays visit https://www.greatbritishracing.com/premier-racedays/
