Fahy hoping to step out of Willie Mullins’ shadow and prove that his horses are... COMING UP FAST

IT’S almost 20 years since Pat Fahy walked Nuaffe over the bridge spanning the Barrow in Leighlinbridge and posed for the BBC cameras before a tilt at t he Grand Nati o nal at Aintree.

He has, as he puts it, ‘been through all that stuff. Today, I’ll enjoy it 10 times more.’

That enjoyment factor could go orbital should Western Boy in today’s Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, Morning Assembly in the RSA Chase and Stack The Deck in the Champion Bumper — both tomorrow, and all to be ridden by top pilot Davy Russell — deliver Cheltenham Festival glory for Fahy, who arrives in the Cotswolds armed with a more considered perspective than before.

‘When I was excited about going over to England with Nuaffe, I was worrying about everything. I blamed myself if anything went wrong, even when no one else was blaming me. It was a horrible place to be,’ he recalled.

‘Cheltenham might be the Coliseum of racing, but you won’t go home like Spartacus, missing a limb or with a hole in your belly. And you have to remember that.

‘For me, in any race, if my horses arrive down to the last and I can roar them home, I’m happy. I’m easily pleased.

Even so, Fahy dearly covets Festival glory, as much for his wife, Natalie, his loyal owners, his friends and for the hard-working lads in his stables whom he reminds about standards. ‘ Don’t have the lads at Willie’s [Mullins] laughing at yiz,’ he chides.

Victory, for any of his horses, might not make a ripple in Fahy’s native Athenry, where only hurlers are acclaimed as sporting immortals, but in Leighlinbridge, the currency of a Cheltenham winner is beyond value.

On the Barrow’s broad banks, Willie Mullins is the undisputed king and by coincidence the ruler supreme of the Irish National Hunt game supplies two strong fancies, Vautour and Ballycasey, in races which Fahy, his neighbour, is targeting. If Fahy is intimidated by the prospect of landing a blow on mighty Mullins, it doesn’t show. ‘It’s lovely to be under the radar; you can go there [Cheltenham] without pressure,’ he said. Fahy was chuffed to see Vautour win so readily at Leopardstown last month as it conf i r med how good a horse Western Boy was — he was less than a length behind Vautour in strength- sapping turf at Punchestown in January. ‘Now, I know I’ve got a proper good horse,’ said Fahy. ‘I felt if I ran him at Leopardstown, he wouldn’t have anything left as he’s light-framed. We said we’d go to Cheltenham fresh and ready.

‘He keeps surprising me and we’re all enjoying him, without the pressure,’ he said. If Western Boy is an intriguing each-way shot in today’s opener, the RSA Chase blessing of Tom Segal, the renowned Racing Post tipster, on Morning Assembly will ensure Fahy’s seven- year- old is well fancied tomorrow.

‘We made a plan last year and we stuck to it. Cheltenham and Punchestown was always the plan. He’s very lightly raced and could be very special. And if he is, we don’t want to burn him out,’ said Fahy.

After Morning Assembly won the Grade One three-mile novice hurdle at Punchestown last April, owner