Elsworth eyeing up emotional hat-trick on Somersby

Mister McGoldrick, his shock 2008 Festival winner for Sue and Harvey Smith, ended a series of near-misses endured in the shadow of Cleeve Hill – while Edgbriar’s victory in the autumn of 2010 could not have been more emotional.

It was the Guiseley jockey’s first ride back after a career-threatening concussion injury that left him sidelined for 14 months and wondering whether he would ever compete again.

Both were tear-jerking occasions. Smith, the former showjumper, was visibly moved as he led his old warrior back to the winner’s enclosure, while the reaction of Elsworth’s weighing-room rivals showed what the victory meant to the sport. This was a triumph of perseverance through the long days, and then weeks, when the Yorkshireman was too tired even to switch on a TV to watch an afternoon’s racing.

Yet both successes would be eclipsed if Elsworth was to win Thursday’s Grade One Ryanair Chase – the premier contest for middle-distance chasers – aboard Henrietta Knight’s well-regarded Somersby.

For, while the jockey’s injury torment has been well-documented, the ever-popular Knight has not had a Festival win since the brilliant Best Mate completed his hat-trick of Gold Cup triumphs in 2004 – though in fairness she’s not had the calibre of horses that it takes to win at Cheltenham.

She’s also had to combine her training responsibilities with nursing her husband Terry Biddlecombe, the former champion jockey, back to health after he suffered a stroke in the autumn.

He was present at Ascot, tears falling from his eyes with pride, when Elsworth partnered Somersby to victory in January’s Victor Chandler Chase – a long overdue first Grade One triumph for horse and rider.

And while the recent death of his great friend and rival Josh Gifford, the man who trained Aldaniti to an emotional Grand National triumph, has hit Biddlecombe, there’s a steely determination that Somersby can beat horses of the calibre of dual Ryanair winner Albertas Run, Nicky Henderson’s Riverside Theatre and Ferdy Murphy’s festival specialist Kalahari King.

Indeed, the manner in which he outbattled Nicky Henderson’s Finian’s Rainbow, a major player in Wednesday’s Queen Mother Champion Chase, suggests the extra four furlongs will suit Somersby – a horse who only failed narrowly to live with Kauto Star and Long Run in an epic King George Chase on Boxing Day.

The script is set. Now it just needs horse and jockey to provide the fairytale finish.

“I’m very much looking forward to riding Somersby at Cheltenham,” said Elsworth who was on board Somersby when he finished third in the 2009 Supreme Novices Hurdle before his injury torment.

“I’ve had my fair share of injuries and it’s nice to get back to do a job I love. I’m very lucky to do a job I love. I never get confident throughout any race and especially at Cheltenham where you have to ride every race individually.

“Somersby came out of Ascot well and Cheltenham has always been the target. Hen will have him right on the day. I’ve sat on him a few times and am hopeful he’ll run a big race.

“Obviously, at Cheltenham there is a lot of hype beforehand but, once you’re on the horse’s back, you just have to get on and do your job.

“Once you get over the last, that’s when the emotions start. But once you’ve passed the winning line, that is when it really counts, because anything can happen between the start and the finish.

“I do enjoy riding at Cheltenham; I think everyone does, but it is a challenge and you need a horse that can travel and jump at speed.”

There is also another dimension – conditions. If the skies had not opened shortly before the 2008 Racing Post Plate, then it is doubtful whether Mister McGoldrick – the eight-time Wetherby winner and named after Leeds heart surgeon Joe McGoldrick – would not have sluiced his way to a 66-1 win.

After twice being a very narrow runner-up at the Festival on the Smith-trained Royal Emperor in the 2003 Pertemps Hurdle and 2004 RSA Chase races – the horse could have won if he had jumped marginally better – the heavy cloud burst was a piece of luck that is crucial to many Cheltenham dreams coming true.

“I’d also dropped my whip on Royal Emperor but the less said about that the better,” said Elsworth, 32. “It is what we all aspire to do as jockeys, have a winner at Cheltenham, at the Festival.

“It was special riding a horse I had grown up with and gained experience with because I had always had a good association with the horse – it was just very special. I’ve not had one at the Festival since then but we’ll keep on trying.”

Yet, by the time of Mister McGoldrick’s win, Elsworth had moved from Yorkshire – and the Smith yard that had provided him with such a solid grounding in horsemanship following his formative yars on the pony club circuit – to Lambourn in a bid to take his career to new heights.

As he looked to broaden his riding opportunities, he soon forged an alliance with Knight and Biddlecombe, with the couple standing by the rider when his career hung in the balance after his fall at Ffos Las in the summer of 2009.

It is loyalty that he would like to repay on Somersby who still holds a tentative entry for Wednesday’s Queen Mother Chase if the going becomes testing, an unlikely prospect at this stage.

He added: “Henrietta and Terry have kept the faith in me. I’ve done the work but you do need people like them to support you. It would be special to ride a winner at the Festival for Henrietta as she gave me a lot of big chances early on in my career. What with Best Mate, she has a great affinity with Cheltenham.”

Just don’t forget the handkerchiefs as Elsworth prepares for, potentially, the ride of his life.