Tom Cannon can’t help but chuckle to himself, when asked whether the Irish domination of last year’s Cheltenham Festival made going out to ride as an English jockey a demoralising experience.
“Maybe for the lads that were riding fancied horses!” he laughs. “If you’re going out there on horses that are expected to win and getting thrashed then yeah, it probably was.
“But the horses I was going out to ride, if I’d have nicked a place I’d have been happy!”
The 23-5 Prestbury Cup mauling dished out by the Irish was made only slightly easier to bear by the coronavirus bubble restrictions of the time, which ensured that while the Brits barely got close to their visiting rivals on the track, they weren’t allowed to off it either.
“The English and Irish had to change in different weighing rooms anyway so we didn’t really see them, except from when they were winning every race,” Cannon says, conceding that a return to normal this week means a similar thrashing “might hit home a bit more”.
It is just as well then that he is in the slightly unfamiliar position of being well-placed to do something about it.
The 30-year-old has never ridden a winner at the Festival - “I’ve hit the crossbar a few times,” he says - but has rarely, if ever, looked to have a better chance of doing so than in Tuesday’s Arkle, where he rides antepost favourite and “horse of a lifetime” Edwardstone.
The second race of the meeting comes after a Supreme Novices’ Hurdle in which Nicky Henderson’s Jonbon and Constitution Hill are prominent contenders and is followed by the Ultima Handicap Chase, a race British runners have an excellent record in, meaning that for all Ireland are almost certain to have the better of the week, there is hope that the home team could at least get off to a flying start. (Equally, if they go into the Champion Hurdle 0-3 down, the writing really will be on the wall).
Edwardstone is not a conventional Arkle favourite. There’ve been only two eight-year-old winners in the last 20 years and trainer Alan King’s best hope of a first Festival winner since 2015 is a second-season novice to boot - meaning he raced over fences last season without winning, thus carrying novice status into a second campaign - though that definition hardly tells the full story.
“He had an abortive attempt at chasing,” Cannon explains. “He was going to go to Plumpton and wasn’t right on the morning of the race and didn’t run, then went to Doncaster [in December 2020] and unseated at the third fence. So, that was scrapped…
“It probably was a blessing in disguise, Kingy’s said that himself. He had to learn to survive, learn to know where his feet were.”
Cannon was at Newbury on the day of the Doncaster blunder and has stand-in Tom Bellamy to thank for coming out of the saddle given what has transpired since, though take-two over fences hardly went much better, the horse brought down on his seasonal reappearance at Warwick in November.
“To be honest, it was just a relief to get him round when he won the second time [at Warwick again],” Cannon admits, but it was a scintillating performance in the Grade 1 Henry VIII Novices’ Chase at Sandown, where he routed the field by 16 lengths, next time out that really raised expectations.
“It wasn’t even a case of going there to win,” Cannon adds. “It was just that he needed the experience and what other race was he going to go for? Everything after that has just been a bonus.”
It often takes a grand plan to hatch a Cheltenham contender but while others have blotted their copybook or been ruled out through injury, the Edwardstone team have taken things one race at a time, recording two further graded successes to build hope that by this time tomorrow Cannon and King will both have ended their respective Festival droughts.
“The goal long-term has always been chasing but it’s always easy to say that and people always throw that around: ‘Oh, he’ll be a better chaser’,” Cannon says.
“There are so many different decisions that could’ve been taken along the way - it’s full credit to Kingy.”
The Cheltenham Festival will be broadcast live on ITV1 from 12.40pm–4.30pm on Tuesday 15 - Friday 18, March. For more info visit greatbritishracing.com
