'Last year I felt sick and empty' - Paddy Brennan and Cue Card have shot at redemption in Cheltenham Gold Cup

Fall guy: Paddy Brennan and Cue Card tumble in last year’s Gold Cup
Mark Large

Paddy Brennan’s is a tale of two Cheltenhams. In 2010, aboard Imperial Commander, jockey and horse swept aside two of the greatest jumpers in Kauto Star and Denman to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup. The ensuing celebrations went on long into the night.

Last year, astride Cue Card, a repeat looked potentially on the cards when the horse clattered the third-from-last fence and sent Brennan tumbling to the turf. The £1million on offer for sealing jumping’s Triple Crown evaporated in a split second.

“It was one of the worst feelings I’ve ever had as a jockey,” says Brennan, a year on from, arguably, his career nadir. “I felt sick and empty. There’s no way to describe that feeling, I never want to feel that again.”

A week today, though, Brennan and Cue Card have a shot at redemption.

The 35-year-old Irishman, who lives just 10 minutes’ drive from the track, will wake up on race day in his own bed and take the short trip to the course for an event he describes as “our Olympics”.

“When you leave there after six or seven years without a win, you feel very empty,” he adds. “That’s very unique. Most of the time, you come away and you think what could I have won on — and normally the answer’s ‘not a lot’. Last year, though, was different.

“I remember a gap appeared and, in hindsight, I wish I hadn’t gone for it, as he [Cue Card] lost concentration. Your first reaction is ‘F**k!’ and for a moment you think, ‘Am I in a dream? Is this real?’ I don’t think I’ve ever left a racecourse so quickly in all my life. I just had no words to describe it.”

Triumph: Brennan celebrates his 2010 win on Imperial Commander
Getty Images

Bar last year’s disappointment, Brennan can barely disguise the magic the Festival, which will be shown on ITV, holds for him, describing the four-day meeting as “unbelievable” and riding in the Gold Cup as “the best feeling in the world”.

And a year on, there is a shot at atonement. Cue Card is now favourite for the blue riband race, his cause helped by the withdrawal of his stablemate and previous market leader Thistlecrack through injury. “It does feel like a chance of redemption,” says Brennan. “Can I put a right to the wrong?”

The Cheltenham faithful love a fairytale and, for what will be Cue Card’s swan song if the 11-year-old is victorious, it would be just that.

Brennan believes his mount is not the one that was so comprehensively beaten in the King George VI on Boxing Day but the one that, last month, picked up the ninth Group One win of his career in the Ascot Chase.

Cheltenham Festival through the years - In pictures

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“He’s had his doubters throughout his career time and again but he keeps proving them wrong,” says Brennan. “At the King George, I knew he wasn’t right from the second fence, while at Ascot he just blew them away — and he’s sharpened up a bit since then.

“The more I ride him, the more impressed I am by him. People tell you he can’t do this or that but he keeps proving them wrong. I realise, though, that this is his last chance at the Gold Cup.”

Brennan likens Cue Card to having a Ferrari under his guidance, although admits he is a more complicated horse than Imperial Commander.

Should Cue Card win, Brennan admits it would eclipse his previous Gold Cup success. “If it happens with him, then it’s something I never could have dreamed about,” he says.

“I don’t want to picture it as it really is the stuff of dreams.”

Brennan says his career has been the stuff of dreams regardless. A budding hurler growing up in County Galway, his route into the equine world was somewhat fortuitous when he begrudgingly agreed to ride one of his friend’s ponies and was quickly identified to be a natural sportsman.

“I loved it straight away, the freedom,” he says. “I still have that, even on Gold Cup day. It’s just so liberating.”

The Cheltenham Festival is on ITV from 1pm on 14-17 March.

For the first 5 races every day of the Cheltenham Festival, it’s money back as a free bet if your horse finishes second. Max £20 per race. T&C’s apply. See paddypower.com for full terms.

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