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Sean Clancy 
I’ve said it over and over, a mantra learned and relearned – all you want in this game is that moment when it can actually happen. That moment when your horse is in the right place, he’s traveling, it’s going as planned, you can see it.
Software executive Morten Buskop won the 2010 Grand National Hurdle Stakes at Far Hills with his Percussionist and is a fan of the Cheltenham Festival. He talks about this year’s meeting and remembers Desert Orchid and Sprinter Sacre.
Update. I survived two lots at George Baker’s this morning. They asked if I wanted to school Sinbad The Sailor, I gave it a long thought and passed. In the words of my old college roommate, Paul Wasserman, it is something I would have liked to have done. Ah well, discretion is the better part of valor or something like that.
I wrote the following hours earlier, also on front page of website. Enjoy.
It is here. Opening day of the Cheltenham Festival. The first of the four best days of racing. Champion Hurdle Day. Arkle Day. It’s 3:30 in the morning and I can’t sleep. I slept soundly for a couple of hours, then bolted up, awake, wired, revving. Bring it on.
It is here. Opening day of the Cheltenham Festival. The first of the four best days of racing. Champion Hurdle Day. Arkle Day. It’s 3:30 in the morning and I can’t sleep. I slept soundly for a couple of hours, then bolted up, awake, wired, revving. Bring it on.
“Just landed.”
“Just confirming that we have declared Valdez for tomorrow at Cheltenham, 2:05 p.m. and Choc is booked to ride. Best of luck. Everything is crossed!”
“Focus on your enjoyment and remember it is only a horse race, nothing compared to friends and family…”
National Hunt trainer Charlie Longsdon seeks his first Festival win this year. In his seventh season as a trainer, Longsdon has 70 horses in his care and sends out favorite Pendra in the Rewards4Racing Novices’ Handicap Chase at this year’s Festival. Longsdon worked for Todd Pletcher before going out on his own.
Landed. Showered. Handicapping. Virgin Atlantic Lounge. Patsy Cline singing Crazy in the background. Now, Stand by Me.
Trainer Eddie Harty will venture from Ireland with a select string for this year’s Cheltenham Festival. Former Festival winner Captain Cee Bee will set the pace in the Champion Hurdle while the likes of Joshua Lane and Minella Foru represent the next generation. Son of the great jump jockey Eddie and brother of American-based trainer Eoin, Harty took out his license in 2004 but has much longer memories of Cheltenham.
Born in Ireland, Daithí Harvey works as a marketing executive for Irish Thoroughbred Marketing. He’s a regular at Cheltenham and has been known to make big scores on Irish handicappers, without uttering a word to friends or family.
Born in Ireland, Eddie Woods followed his dad into steeplechasing, riding at the Cheltenham Festival in the 1970s. Woods lives in Ocala, where he runs Eddie Woods Training Center and is one of the nation’s leading 2-year-olds in training consignors.
