Paddy Brennan talks Christmas, Cue Card and the real horse racing heroes
Saturday 24 December 2016 17:10, UK
Christmas is an arduous time for sportsmen and women. Top jockey Paddy Brennan takes us through the festive season from his perspective.
Firstly I have to talk about Cue Card, who is running in the King George VI Chase on Boxing Day.
He won the race last year, but if he wins again I think it would mean even more to me after what happened in the Gold Cup last year when we fell at the third last fence.
In terms of the opposition, I cannot see anything other than his stablemate Thistlecrack beating him now, but that's just my honest opinion.
Cue Card is such a good horse, from a jockeys' point of view he makes you feel good - it's not that you're doing anything different to how you'd ride any other horse, it's just you have the power underneath you.
The only way I can describe it is like stepping out of an average car and jumping into a Ferrari!
Christmas can be a tricky time for jockeys with all the food that's on offer, but I'm lucky with my weight and I don't struggle too much.
During the festivities I can pretty much have what I like, but obviously I control what I'm eating simply because I'm an athlete. I need to be as fit as possible to ride just like the footballers who will be playing on Boxing Day - so I won't be stuffing my face.
I just enjoy the time with my two young children, they make Christmas for me and I'm really excited.
It's important at this time of the year that the racing industry thanks all the stable staff who work tirelessly to ensure the thousands of horses are given the very best care.
They all work unbelievably hard, and without them the racing at Kempton or anywhere else just wouldn't happen.
They do it for love and the passion of horses, and whilst everyone is thinking about turkey on Christmas morning, they'll be up early, working as hard as ever to ensure the show goes on. I could go on forever talking about them.
Finally my season so far has gone better than I could have ever expected.
I'm fifth in the Stobart Jump Jockeys' Championship with 63 winners and I've kept saying to myself all season I want to get 100 winners by April (when the season ends) and I think I've given myself a good chance of doing it.
Fingers crossed Cue Card can help me add one more to my tally on Boxing Day.
Keep up to date with the Stobart Jump Jockeys' Championship here: www.greatbritishracing.com/championships/
