Top Jockey Reveals ‘Leo Messi’ Cheltenham Bankers
In an exclusive interview with InstantCasinos, top jump jockey Nick Scholfield believes two horses running at this year’s Cheltenham Festival are virtually guaranteed to win their races – the Gold Cup and the Triumph Hurdle.
The Festival-winning rider drew comparisons between footballing legend Lionel Messi and the current Gold Cup favourite ‘Galopin Des Champs’, plus also threw into the Cheltenham mix Nicky Henderson’s ‘Sir Gino’ as a star in the making.
Scholfield also revealed how it feels to ride a winner at the famous four-day jump racing festival, which gets underway on Tuesday.
Top Jockey Reveals ‘Leo Messi’ Cheltenham Bankers
The incredible Galopin Des Champs is aiming for back-to-back Cheltenham Gold Cup wins to match his consecutive Irish Gold Cup victories and Scholfield is convinced that he will achieve racing immortality over the 3 mile 2 1⁄2 furlong, 22 fence course.
Nick Scholfield: “There’s obviously a couple of big bankers for punters. First of all, Sir Gino in the Triumph Hurdle has as strong credentials as any English runner at the Festival this year. And also Galopin Des Champs in the Gold Cup, who won it for Willie Mullins last year. They’re the most obvious ones. These two are in everyone’s accas and both look exceptional horses. If they could come in, people should appreciate what champions they are, because I think these are the best-of-the-best, the best of their discipline and they’re like our Leo Messis of horse racing.”
Riding Cheltenham Winner Compares To Lifting FA Cup
Scholfield won the Grand Annual Chase at Cheltenham on 14/1 shot Sky Pirate in 2021 and the jockey went into detail on the emotions he felt, on what was one of the best days of his career to date;
Nick Scholfield: “There’s no better feeling. Becoming a Cheltenham Festival winner can just make your season. It’s so hard to describe. You can have a really bad season leading up to it but just having that one winner there can just revive your career. It’s like winning an FA Cup final. It’s our Olympics and after the winners I’ve had there, you look at your mobile phone and you can get 200 messages from your school friends. You wouldn’t get that any other day of the week.”
