O’Neill can prove the difference for Elliott
NEITHER Nina Carberry nor Katie Walsh are riding at the Cheltenham Festival this week.
Two of the 16 women to have won 23 races between them at the meeting have retired, but there are others in silks who are geared to seize the day.
Rachael Blackmore, yet to ride a Festival winner, will have more rides than any other female pilot this week, as befits a front-line Irish professional.
While Lisa O’Neill, a key member of the Gordon Elliott team since 2012, both on the gallops and in the office at Cullentra, will seize whatever opportunities fall her way.
Unlike Blackmore, O’Neill is an amateur, so her options are limited but Elliott would have no fears about throwing O’Neill in against the pros, if pushed.
The Garristown girl has come a long way since her first winner in 2010, at Newton Abbot in an Anglo-Irish lady riders’ race.
She’s chalked up a Munster National win, lost her claim at Laytown last September and has booted home 24 winners this season.
Pointedly, O’Neill is also among the ‘Sweet 16’ who have a Cheltenham Festival winner on their career CV. It was with a special horse too: Tiger Roll in the 2017 National Hunt Chase.
‘There were whispers around the yard that I might be riding him but I’m a bit of a pessimist. I waited until the morning of the declarations – I was jocked up,’ she recalled.
It was O’Neill’s first ride at the Festival. She was nervous and ‘didn’t want anything to go wrong.’ The race is remembered as much for Edwulf’s heart-stopping wobble after the final fence as for Tiger Roll’s relentless gallop up the hill.
‘It went so quick. The good days are like that, the bad days last forever,’ said O’Neill.
‘To be honest I just wanted to get around in one piece and two fences to go, and he was still tanking along. I didn’t think much about it until he landed at the last, because you have to jump to win.
‘When he landed at the back of the last, I thought something might come to me but to cross the line first still gives me the shivers.
‘I was older than most people are when they ride their first (Cheltenham) winner and I think I appreciated it a bit more.
‘I think I was 24 when I rode my first winner so it all took a while and was worth the hard graft.
‘I was also very lucky to get the ride on a horse that has become a legend. He’s turned into a people’s horse. He’s been unbelievable horse for a few of us, Keith (Donohue) won on him at Cheltenham last year (Cross-Country), Donagh Meyler won the Munster National. Davy (Russell) won the National.’
A video of O’Neill’s mother, Margaret, going berserk in the closing stages of the National Hunt win went viral, and was part of the acclaimed ‘Jump Girls’ documentary.
So too was the gripping concern for O’Neill’s welfare from family when she took a heavy fall from Mossback in the same race last March.
When she eventually appeared by the weigh-room, cradling her saddle, the relief was palpable, especially in her sister Siobhan, Lisa’s No1 fan. Sadly, Mossback didn’t make it.
‘It was a sad day. The previous year was so good for me and last year was so bad with Mossback not surviving, it was very hard. That’s racing for you.’
Four lady riders won at Cheltenham last year, including Walsh on Relegate in the Champion Bumper. Could O’Neill be among them this week? ‘It would be lovely to have a ride at Cheltenham. I kind of find in this game the less you expect the less you’d be disappointed.’
O’Neill, 33, has travelled over as part of the huge Elliott team and will walk the track, as part of a long-held suspicion.
Does she get more nervous at Cheltenham than say, Laytown?
‘You probably would because everyone’s watching. But once you get up on a horse to do your thing, the adrenalin gets going and any nerves go out the window.’
Expect Elliott to turn to O’Neill this week for he knows he can rely on this pocket rocket. After all, she’s a proven winner who knows how to get the job done.