Waiting expectantly for Sprinter to follow in the Flyer’s footsteps

One of the greatest ever two-mile steeplechasers, the horse carried Geraghty to his first ever Cheltenham victory a decade ago.

After landing the 2002 Arkle, Jessica Harrington’s brilliant chaser won two Queen Mother Champion Chases. It is horses of this calibre that has enabled the County Meath jockey to ride at least one Festival winner for each of the past 10 years.

Yet the electrifying Sprinter Sacre – the most exciting young steeplechaser on both sides of the Irish Sea and a red-hot favourite for tomorrow’s Racing Post Arkle Trophy – excites Geraghty as much as the iconic Moscow Flyer.

“He’s known as ‘God’ at Nicky Henderson’s and there’s a reason for that – I don’t think anyone knows how good he can become,” the likable 31-year-old told the Yorkshire Post.

“Only time will tell how good he is – but he’s the first horse I’ve ridden that has the same class as dear old Moscow. Seriously, he’s that good.

“He ran well last year at the Festival, finishing third in the Supreme Novices to Al Ferof from Paul Nicholls’, but I’d be very hopeful of reversing that form. He’s strengthened up and taken to his fences really well.”

It was David Bass, a young conditional, who was in the saddle when Sprinter Sacre won his chasing debut at Doncaster last December by an effortless 24-lengths.

The horse’s jumping was so fast that his young rider hardly had time to catch his breath. “One of the best days of my life,” a beaming Bass revealed afterwards.

Yet Geraghty was back in the saddle when the six-year-old lowered the colours of Donald McCain’s Champion Hurdle runner-up Peddlers Cross at Kempton over Christmas – and he was also on board when the horse broke Newbury’s course record last month without coming off the bridle.

“If Peddlers hadn’t made a mistake at the first at Kempton, he could have fallen,” said Geraghty. “He learned quickly. He was a little bit fresh at Newbury, but it had been six weeks since Kempton. The shorter gap to Cheltenham will help.

“He’s a handful but a nice handful if you get my drift. When he sees a fence, he grows – takes off. The brave ones grow, the not-so-brave, well they shrink and you don’t want to know. It’s edge-of-the-seat stuff. He’s no passenger ride, but he was a man against boys in the Game Spirit at Newbury; they were seriously good 150-plus horses that he beat.”

That course record at Newbury has been the subject of some conjecture – Ferdy Murphy, the North Yorkshire trainer, says horses are galloping by the time the starting tapes go up.

Geraghty disagrees. “If I had told my boy ‘go’ at the top of the home straight, he would have knocked six seconds off the course record.

“I think he could go further, but why do so when you can dominate the two-mile division? A bit more experience and he could have won this year’s Queen Mother.”

The jockey – the first in history to win Cheltenham’s four championship races and a Grand National – is now in his fourth season at Henderson’s Lambourn stables, commuting several times a week between Britain and Ireland.

Geraghty compares Henderson, two winners shy of becoming the Festival’s winning-most trainer, as the racing equivalent of Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager. “Both win when it matters,” he says. “That’s why they’re great.”

His most memorable Cheltenham win for Henderson was Punjabi’s 2009 Champion Hurdle triumph. It was an epic race – Geraghty outbattling Ruby Walsh on Celestial Halo and AP McCoy on stablemate Binocular.

“We nearly ended up in the stable lads’ canteen at the top of the hill. If there was another race like it, we’d get a little holiday for the whip,” he said. “But it mattered as much as Kicking King’s Gold Cup in 2005 because it was my first season for the boss.”

As well as Sprinter Sacre, Geraghty singles out Riverside Theatre in Thursday’s Ryanair Chase, Simonsig in Wednesday’s Neptune Investment and Burton Port in Friday’s Gold Cup as rides to follow.

“Burton Port was really game at Newbury, finishing second to Long Run and it’s great Nicky has two horses to run in the Gold Cup,” said Geraghty. “It could be Long Run’s again and we’ll have to see with Burton Port – he had a long lay-off and then ran well at Newbury. Will the bounce factor affect him? We’ll see. What I do know is that I will have a great chance if we’re there at two out. He was second to Weapons Amnesty in the RSA Chase two years back and he’ll stay up the hill. There will be no sentiment with Sam Waley-Cohen on Long Run. You do what you have to do – and that’s win.”

Geraghty’s other eye-catching ride is Oscar Whisky, last year’s Champion Hurdle third and tipped by many to lower the colours of Big Buck’s in the Ladbrokes World Hurdle if his stamina holds out for three miles.

It’s a tall order – Big Buck’s is going for a record-equalling 16th consecutive hurdles win and has won the last three renewals of this Grade One contest.

“He’s a horse that does so well over two-and-a-half, so it makes more sense to go up in trip rather than go back in trip,” explained the jockey. “Hopefully he can beat Big Buck’s – you have to live in hope. Big Buck’s is the best stayer we’ve had in my lifetime but you have to be prepared to take him on.

“If you didn’t think you could win, there’d be little point turning up. But my best ride? Sprinter Sacre. Without a doubt.”

Henderson on course to take festival crown

NICKY Henderson is banking on a fast start to the Festival as he bids to become the winning-most trainer in Cheltenham history.

One win away from the all-time mark of 40 set by Fulke Walwyn, with horses like Mill House, Henderson could beat the mark – and come close to bridging the gap on Paul Nicholls in this season’s trainers’ championship – by the end of tomorrow’s fourth race.

Equally, the Seven Barrows handler knows Cheltenham can be an unforgiving sporting amphitheatre – indeed, he had to wait until race three of the final day last year to land his first winner when Bobs Worth landed the Albert Bartlett. It eased the tension before Henderson broke his Gold Cup duck with Long Run.

The momentum he has gained from emerging young horses in recent campaigns sees him saddling perhaps his strongest ever team in 2012.

With JP McManus’ Darlan a likely favourite for the curtain-raising William Hill Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, Henderson could have already equalled Walwyn’s record by the time the electric Sprinter Sacre – the best horse he has trained – tackles the Racing Post Arkle Novices’ Chase.

Then there is the matter of revitalised former Champion Hurdler Binocular back in action against Hurricane Fly, the reigning champion, a little over half-an-hour later. “The first three races are going to tell us an awful lot,” said the handler. “I’m either going to be a happy Henderson, or a wounded one.”

As well as Long Run and Burton Port in the Gold Cup, the Jimmy Nesbitt-owned Riverside Theatre is a possible favourite in the Ryanair Chase, the aforementioned Bobs Worth in the RSA Chase and Oscar Whisky taking on Big Buck’s in the Ladbrokes World Hurdle.

“I think we’ve got good strength in depth everywhere and lots of chances, but there are lots of good horses to beat,” Henderson went on. “With Sprinter Sacre, we are the one everyone is going to be frightened of, and I’m going to be terrified watching him too. But in the other races, I’m frightened of something else.”