Pendleton’s jumping style

When I schooled with her in the summer I was very impressed and this was very much in the infancy of her riding, never mind schooling or riding in a race. I was very impressed by how she was, riding over an obstacle. And even then, you could tell, her positioning over an obstacle was very good. I think she was a little bit loose at the beginning, which is very normal for any sort of rider, never mind a beginner riding a racehorse over fences. She’s quite forward in the saddle. If he does make a mistake, would she get pulled over his head? Maybe. But at the same time you have to judge on what you see and there was none of that. It’s only a might. You’re only speculating. And on the other hand, if you’re sitting very far back, your centre of balance can get loose.

Cheltenham chances

There'll be at least 10 worse riders than her in the field. Definitely. You've got your very good amateurs over here and your very, very good Irish amateurs coming over, the likes of Jamie Codd, who would have made it as a professional jockey if he'd chosen to go down that route, and there's a few like him. But you're only talking 10 or 15 of the field in that category and then you're talking a lot of people that might be good riders in time but they're quite young and then there are people who are just there for the day out. It's still a massive task ahead of her, a massive task for anyone. I'm not saying it's a walk in the park but she's come through today with flying colours. In my head she's done more than enough to suggest that Cheltenham is fine. And if anyone wants to say any different, and they obviously can because it's a game of opinions, they should pick out where in that race their opinion is coming from.

Confidence and pressure

She didn’t look as if she was lacking confidence today. Maybe that was an issue at Fakenham but it’s very overwhelming; your first ride is a big thing. In my case it was a Monday at Hereford two days before Christmas, in a bumper. I’d say nobody even knew … well, I can’t even remember it, never mind anyone else, whereas at Fakenham there was the world’s press watching her, so you’d want to be a bit nervous. You’re going to look out and think, all these people are here for me and I don’t know exactly what I’m doing because I’ve never done it before. I think she’ll draw a lot of confidence from this. When we all had our first rides, we had this very low-key stage. And she’s done it under proper scrutiny. She’s one from two, 50%! It’s the only way of looking at it, it’s in black and white. Everything else is open to debate.

Riding in a gale

The wind was a massive issue [OUT THERE]today. That’s why the open ditch was missed out, which is very rare. It’s very rare to have a fence out because of wind. I think it’s one of the first times I’ve ever known it in my riding career. And it was very, very bad and blowing a gale down the back. I rode in the race before her, we jumped the ditch and then took the decision that the fence should be missed out after that [for the rest of the meeting]. It was horrendous. It was a side-wind. Jumping into it would probably have been easier. It was pushing you over. Very rare does it come into play. It’s very, very rare it’s as windy as that on the track. But it was raceable, it was just our decision to miss that fence because that’s where the strongest wind was.

Pendleton’s riding ability

Even the most strenuous of critics would find it hard to fault her today, to be honest. It was great to watch, from both horse and rider, very enjoyable. The change of tactics may have helped but I don’t think it’s a massive problem if there’s horses in front of her. I haven’t seen her point-to-points but I presume she hasn’t made the running in every single one of them. So I wouldn’t read too much into that. The improvement in her has been absolutely huge. This time last year she couldn’t ride and now she’s riding round Wincanton. It’s not an easy racetrack. It’s one of the tougher ones in the country. To be fair, Fakenham and Wincanton are both quite tough. Today, I think you’d have to be very nitty gritty to find any sort of fault.

(Guardian service)