Ruby Walsh: Racing's biggest show is still miles off for many riders

BIG NUMBERS: Willie Mullins will run over 80 horses at Cheltenham next week. Pic: Lorraine O'Sullivan/PA 

Around 3.30am on Saturday morning, a giant wheel, which will only come full circle shortly after 7am next Saturday, began to turn in Willie Mullins' yard.

By Saturday, over 80 horses and 35 people will have contributed to the process of competing at Cheltenham, the logistics of which began months ago.

The experience of those involved will see the wheel only stutter once or twice but never bump off the road. The first 24 horses for departure will have pulled onto the M9 northbound for Dublin at about 5.40am but getting there will have taken almost two hours.

Allowing the horses time to eat breakfast and have some exercise before their journey begins is time-consuming. Pre-ordered hay and feed will be waiting for them on arrival, but everything else has to be brought: Wet gear, heavy sheets, light sheets, spares to use when the wet ones haven't dried, tack, buckets, etc. It’s a good job there are no baggage weight restrictions.

Ninety minutes to Dublin Port, an hour for check-in and boarding, three and a bit hours to cross the Irish Sea and almost five to Cheltenham.

Door-to-door is just under 12 hours, and the lorries gone Saturday morning will be back to bring Monday's load before returning in the early hours of Wednesday morning with the horses who left Saturday and ran Tuesday afternoon.

Those same trucks will return empty to the Cotswolds on Thursday to be ready to bring Friday's team home. The horses go through the day and return through the night because they will all have a leisurely few days after running and to get over a poor night's sleep.

Of the 90 pencilled in to go, 84 or 85 will travel. If Willie breaks his record of 10 winners last year by just one, only 11 of the 85 will have won, which means 74 of the horses leaving his Carlow base this week will have lost!

You might ask why he sends so many when only a few can win. He doesn't view it that simply. He views it more from the ‘if you are not in, you can't win’ and the ‘who knows what can happen on any given day?’ angles.

Joe Cullen popped up, and so did Briar Hill and The Nice Guy, which Willie often uses to remind people when they suggest, based on its price, that a horse shouldn't travel.

Hence extra trucks are hired, part-time staff are recruited to help carry the load left in Ireland, and just under half the team is relocated to Gloucester. The horses are ready, and the last heavy work was completed Friday.

There will be setbacks between now and race time, and not all of these horses will remain as healthy as they were leaving Closutton, but fingers crossed that the majority will.

They have completed their prep, but the humans still have work to do. Every jockey riding next week will be riding this weekend. The snow and rain that fell through midweek will have delighted those with rides next week because the ground will have slowed, resulting in the tempo of races slowing down for the weekend.

The risk of injury is an everyday occupational hazard, but one this weekend is doubled-edged. They are so close yet so far from Tuesday, and with double meetings Saturday and Sunday being added to by the rescheduling of Thursday's cancelled card at Thurles to next Monday, the Festival is still miles off for many riders.

The groans could be felt amongst the hoard of riders assembled on Willie Mullins's gallop Thursday morning when the rescheduled fixture was announced. Paul Townend's face never flinched: He is out of Ireland on Sunday, and that's that.

Danny Mullins was contemplating flight changes and weighing up Monday's financial gain from riding fees and percentages versus the risk of more rides before the Festival begins. You could almost see the hamster spinning in his mind as the wheel span around.

Jack Foley, Kieran Callaghan, and Sean Cleary Farrell smiled as the chance of an opportunity appeared, and the rest just groaned, knowing the reality of their world meant they would be looking for flights Monday night.

None of them, as self-employed people, were in a position to turn down work on a Monday, but they knew the costs of cancelling flights and booking new ones would be on them.

Tuesday will see this sport in all its glory but, before then, most of the people who will mount horses to entertain millions will face all sorts of emotions this weekend. Some will wonder if their phone might ring, and a chance to participate emerges. Others will go to work this weekend, hoping to survive so they can take part next week, and others will be going, hoping for a bit of luck to send them off on a high. Risk versus reward. Good luck to them all.