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Not to be confused with his namesake, who is a trainer based in Chiddingfold, Surrey, George Baker is a former Classic-winning jockey. Despite being exceptionally tall for a a Flat jockey, at 5’11”, Baker rode 1,364 winners in an 18-year career, but was forced to retire from the saddle in November, 2017, at the age of 35, after sustaining serious head injuries in a fall at the so-called ‘White Turf’ in St. Moritz the previous February. His mount, Boomerang Bob, lost his footing on the frozen, snow-covered lake, fell fatally and landed on his jockey, who suffered bleeding in the brain as a result. Baker was finally discharged from hospital in April, 2017 and at the time of his retirement said, ‘Although I will not be able to race-ride again, I consider myself extremely fortunate to be where I am now.’

While many more carefree individuals will have been playing on https://www.jackpotjill.com/en, Baker became apprenticed to Upper Lambourn trainer Mark Usher straight from school in 1999 and rode his first winner, Beauchamp Magic, at Wolverhampton in December that year, at the age of 17. His debut season yielded just two winners, but subsequent seasonal totals of 55, 23 and 23 in 2000, 2001 and 2002, respectively, were more than enough for him to ride out his claim and become a fully-fledged professional jockey.

Baker recorded his first Group race victory aboard Wake Up Maggie, trained by Christian Wall, in the Group Three Oak Tree Stakes at Goodwood in 2007. He also formed a successful partnership with stable stalwart Premio Loco, on whom he won nine Listed and Pattern races, including the Group Two Celebration Mile at Goodwood, between 2009 and 2012. He rode his first Group One winner, Seal Of Victory, trained by James Fanshawe, in the Qipco British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes at Ascot in 2013 and his one and only Classic winner, Harbour Law, trained by Laura Mongan, in the St. Leger Stakes at Doncaster in 2016. Like a high roller casino patron who couldn’t go wrong, Baker rode a hundred winners in a season six times, but his best season numerically was 2014, when he rode 162 winners from 826 rides, at a strike rate of 20%.

Istabraq, who won the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in 1998, 1999 and 2000, has the distinction of being the latest of just five horses – the others being Hatton’s Grace, Sir Ken, Persian War and See You Then – to win the two-mile hurdling championship three times. Indeed, his Timeform Annual Rating of 180 places him second on the all-time list of hurdlers, ahead of the aforementioned quartet, alongside Monksfield and behind only Night Nurse.

Bought by intended trainer John Durkan, on behalf of J.P. McManus, in 1995, Istabraq was transferred to Aidan O’Brien when Durkan was diagnosed with leukemia the following year. Istabraq made his hurdling debut at Punchestown in November, 1996, where he was narrowly beaten but, having been gelded, won his next three starts on the way to his first appearance at the Cheltenham Festival, in the Royal Sunallliance Novices’ Hurdle. Durkan had predicted that Istabraq would win the latter, which he did, albeit all out in the closing stages.

Istabraq returned to the Cheltenham Festival in 1998, justifying favouritism in the Champion Hurdle with an effortless 12-length victory, made tragically poignant by the death of Durkan, at the age of just 31, the previous January. The rest, as they say, is history. In a remarkable career, Istabraq was, according to Timeform, ‘a giant in an age of pygmies’; all told, he won 23 of his 29 starts, including 14 at the highest, Grade One level, and amassed a little over £1 million in prize money. Having won on four successive occasions at the Cheltenham Festival, Istabraq was denied the chance to make it five when the meeting was lost to a foot-and-mouth outbreak in 2001; at the time the Festival was cancelled, Istabraq was odds-on, at 1/2, to win an unprecedented fourth Champion Hurdle.

At the time of writing, Al Boum Photo, trained by Willie Mullins, is a top-priced 4/1 favourite to become the first horse since Best Mate, in 2004, to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup three years running. A beaten third when falling at the second-last fence in the RSA Insurance Novices’ Chase at the 2018 Cheltenham Festival, the Buck’s Boum gelding has been lightly raced in recent seasons. He has, nonetheless, won five of his six starts, finishing second to stable companion Kemboy in the Punchestown Gold Cup, in the wake of his first victory in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2019, on the other occasion.

Prior to 2019, the Cheltenham Gold Cup had not been a happy hunting ground for Willie Mullins. Between 2000 and 2016, perennial Champion National Hunt Trainer suffered the frustration of saddling the runner-up in the ‘Blue Riband’ event no fewer than six times, including four years running between 2013 and 2016. Indeed, in 2014, On His Own suffered an agonising short-head defeat, having been carried right by the eventual winner, Lord Windermere, in the closing stages. At the ensuing enquiry, the stewards acknowledged that minor interference had taken place – and suspended Davy Russell, jockey of Lord Windermere, for careless riding – but the result stood.

However, in 2019, Al Boum Photo finally broke Mullins’ lengthening hoodoo when staying on strongly to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup by 2½ lengths. In 2020, he justified favouritism, albeit narrowly, when staying on, all out, to beat Santini by a neck, with Lostintranslation a further 1¼ lengths behind in third place. Still only a nine-year-old, Al Boum Photo won what has become his traditional warm-up race for the Cheltenham Gold Cup, the Savills Chase at Tramore, with consummate ease on his seasonal reappearance on New Year’s Day in 2021. He remains on course for his bid to join a small, select band of horses to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup more than twice.

There are and continue to be countless characters in horse racing, the sport of kings, over the years. From all angles, the riding, the training, the owning, right through to the colourful peripheral characters that have made their mark on racing over the decades (a nod to the late great John Mccririck!). With the magnificent and much awaited Cheltenham Festival just around the corner, it feels like a good time to centre in on someone who has more than made their mark in this prestigious event. And that individual is none over that talented jockey, Davy Russell.

Beyond horse racing circles, David ‘Davy’ Russell is of course best known for his association with Tiger Roll, whom he rode to back-to-back victories in the Grand National in 2018 and 2019. However, the 41-year-old Corkman has an enviable record at the Cheltenham Festival too, where he has ridden a total of 22 winners and ranks and impressive sixth in the all-time list of most successful jockeys. He features in many Cheltenham Guides such as cheltenhamguides.com and for good reason.

Russell rode his first Cheltenham Festival winner, Native Jack, trained by Philip Rothwell, in what is now the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase and, with the exception of 2019, has ridden at least one winner at every Cheltenham Festival since. In 2018, he rode four winners, including Presenting Percy in the RSA Insurance Novices’ Chase and Balko Des Flos in the Ryanair Chase to win the Leading Jockey Award for the one and only time. A record viewed by many to be beyond impressive.

Of the four main ‘championship’ races at the Festival, Russell has won just one, the Cheltenham Gold Cup (though what a race to win!), aboard Lord Windermere, trained by Jim Culloty, in 2014. However, he in fact was completing a notable double, having won the RSA Insurance Novices’ Chase on the same horse in 2013. Indeed, that year he also rode Tiger Roll to the first of his four victories, so far, at the Cheltenham Festival, in the Triumph Hurdle.

Russell is also, jointly, the leading jockey in the history of two of the most competitive handicaps at the Cheltenham Festival, the Coral Cup and the Pertemps Final. So far, he has won both races three times, in the case of the former on Naiad de Misselot in 2008, Carlito Brigante in 2011 and Diamond King in 2016, and of the latter on Mall Dini in 2016, Presenting Percy in 2017 and Delta Work in 2018. It will take a jockey of quite some talent to overshadow the achievements of Davy Russell.