‘Natural’ Pendleton on track for Festival
VICTORIA PENDLETON has received a massive vote of confidence in her quest to ride at next year’s Cheltenham Festival from the man entrusted with helping her switch from bicycle to horseback.
Yogi Breisner, performance manager for the GB three- day eventing team, admits he was sceptical about the double Olympic champion’s bid to ride in the Foxhunter Chase, but Pendleton has convinced him the ‘very tall order’ may not be so far-fetched.
Ahead of Pendleton’s first race under rules at Ripon this afternoon, when she partners Royal Etiquette in the Betfair Novice Flat Amateur Riders Handicap, Breisner said: ‘Her position on a bike is not dissimilar to a jockey’s position on a horse, particularly from side to side.
‘She has a natural sense of balance you could not have predicted, and also a natural way of finding a stride into a fence which, again, you could not have counted on. It is something you either have or you don’t. If you have it, you can develop it.
‘She is naturally fit and very determined. When she sets herself a target, she goes for it. She listens, takes things on board and can execute them. I suppose that is because of the coaching she has had all her life.’
Pendleton started riding racehorses at morning exercise eight weeks after coming under Breisner’s tutelage. She sees him for two sessions a week and rides out every morning for Royal Etiquette’s trainer Lawney Hill.
Pendleton rode in a charity race at Newbury in July and this afternoon’s mile-and-a- quarter race (5.30pm), when she faces 14 rivals, is the next step.
She aims to ride in point-to-points this autumn, while cham- pion jumps trainer Paul Nicholls has been charged with finding her a mount for the Foxhunters’.
Today’s race is restricted to amateur riders with no more than three winners at the start of the season. Pendleton’s mount Royal Etiquette has won three of his 58 races.
Elsewhere, retirement beckons for US Triple Crown winner American Pharoah following his shock defeat at Saratoga on Saturday evening.
Smash Williams is a 25-1 shot for the 2,000 Guineas after winning yesterday’s Group Three Round Tower Stakes by an easy length-and-three- quarters for Jim Bolger at the Curragh.
The Frankie Dettori- John Gosden combination landed the Prix Quincey Barriere at Deauville with Johnny Barnes.