Headlines on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival were dominated by the shock falls of Constitution Hill and State Man, but, elsewhere on the card, there was a first Cheltenham Festival success for young jockey Patrick Wadge, who partnered Myretown to make all in the Ultima Handicap Chase.
Described by his mother as a “wet wipe” in his early days of riding horses, everything changed for Patrick when he began riding in point-to-points, “I was a big wimp when I did a bit of eventing and hunting and stuff and I was a big softie when it came to it, but, once I started racing, I found going fast as better to be honest, which is a weird thing to say. As soon as I started point-to-pointing, I loved it and I gave up the eventing and came up here”.
Patrick is based in Scotland with dual-Grand National winning trainer Lucinda Russell and her partner Peter Scudamore, who is an Injured Jockeys Fund vice-patron and was champion jockey eight times in an illustrious riding career. “Her work ethic is amazing”, Patrick said of Lucinda, “She doesn’t have to but she’s out there at four, five in the morning every day doing the horses and mucking out and riding out. She’s easy to talk to. If you were, to say, stuck in any situations, she’d always be there to help you out”.
Similarly, ‘Scu’ has been a valuable source of advice for the young rider, “He’s very good in the sense of how to get the horses jumping. He’s very good at that, everything is simple”, Patrick explained, “He’s been a great help and I hope he’ll keep helping me and they’re very easy people to get along with and they’re very loyal, which is a big thing, I think”.
That loyalty shone through when Patrick became Champion Conditional in the 2023-24 National Hunt season, with the Russell yard providing 160 rides and 32 winners towards his championship bid, “I thought that was probably going to be my biggest moment and that quickly got put aside a year later”, Patrick laughed, speaking a week on from his Cheltenham Festival victory, “It was a great year and they were amazing to give me plenty of opportunities, and they still do”.
In January, Patrick was trusted to ride Ahoy Senor, the yard’s stable star, at Windsor after Derek Fox, the horse’s regular jockey, suffered an injury, “When he was in his prime, it would only be really me and Derek who would ride him and he was always one of them horses I’d love to have a sit on and the way he goes at home I always wanted to see what he was like at the track”.
Getting the leg-up was an immensely exciting moment, “I was revved to be honest. I went down to the start and I was just lobbing down to the start and I just couldn’t help but smile because to be on him on the day, I know he didn’t run that well, it didn’t really matter that much to me, I was happy to be on him”.
Patrick’s first big success was on board Apple Away, a star for the stable in her own right, in a listed novice mares’ race at Doncaster in March 2023, “She’s not very flashy or anything, but she’s just grit and determination and the day I won on her was very special”, he remembers, “To ride her as a 7lbs claimer was mad, but she’s been a great mare. Hopefully, she’ll have another day in the sun at some point”.
Apple Away is owned by 3000 passionate racing fans through Old Gold Racing Syndicate, “Those syndicates, they’re lovely to ride for”, Patrick explains, “There’s a lot of people to talk to, so I just chat away, then I go and ride like it is any other day. They’re usually really good and just listen. All they like is to be at the races and watch their horse run well and it is a good day if that happens”.
Of course, racing is not all good days and Patrick suffered an injured collarbone after Kandor fell at Ayr on 13th November. He set his sights on returning for a particular horse and looked to the Injured Jockeys Fund for support, “They were doubtful, but things turned a corner in the last week and I think I got cleared three weeks in after doing it, so that was good, but it obviously wasn’t 100% so I was still very sore when I was riding, but it was something I could get over quickly. You would definitely not nearly get back in that time if it wasn’t for them. They push you without pushing you too hard. They just know what you can do, and are obviously very nice people. Without them, I’d say jockeys would definitely be in worse shapes than they are nowadays. They’re brilliant. You wouldn’t be getting back in four or five weeks if it wasn’t for them. They’re great”.
As part of his recovery, Patrick was treated at the new Scottish hub in Galashiels made possible after the late racehorse breeder Ella MacGregor left a generous gift to facilitate an Injured Jockeys Fund base north of the Scottish border.
“The way they’re doing it, I think, is working really well”, Patrick said, “When Libby [Lindsay] is needed, she’s there and it’s a helping hand without having to go down to Jack Berry House. Concussions, I think, it is very good for because again you don’t really want to have to go down to Jack Berry House (JBH) initially, not that they’re not nice people, but it’s four and a half hours away to get told you’re okay is a long way to go. To be cleared fit and to ‘return to ride’ we attend JBH for a thorough check up before getting the ‘Green Light’.
“It was good for my collarbone because I was able to go and see her and she could then get an idea of where I was at and pass that on to the Jack Berry House team, so they have more of an idea of when I arrive what I can do. I think that’s another great idea that they’ve come up with. The longer it goes on the better it’ll get”.
Patrick was fortunately fighting fit for the Cheltenham Festival, where he had three rides and won the Ultima Handicap Chase on ‘Myretown’, which was his “first proper ride” at the prestigious meeting. It was also Patrick’s first ride in public on the big bay, who “can be quite a handful, a forward going horse” in the mornings at home, not dissimilar to his illustrious stable companion, Ahoy Senor.
“The main issue with Myretown was his jumping”, Patrick explained. The horse had fallen in his point-to-point, as a novice hurdler and at Windsor as a novice chaser in January, “Derek always talked about him as a very good horse, he never hid that when he’d ride him, he said how good he was and I think had he stayed on his feet at Windsor and won, I don’t think Derek would’ve rode the other one, I think he would’ve rode Myretown, but obviously going into a twenty-four runner field, we didn’t know how he’d take to it to be honest”.
On the day, Myretown led from pillar to post, “I got a great spin, there was never a moment when I didn’t really enjoy him. Every time I asked, he came; every time I sat quietly he popped, he was just class to be honest”, Patrick laughs, as if in disbelief, “I wasn’t straight away jumping for joy [because of the jumping issue], but, once I had talked myself around to the fact that he was well-handicapped, where else would you rather get a fall at than giving it your best shot at Cheltenham? He was brilliant”.
And, what was it like riding into that famous winners’ enclosure? “Couldn’t tell you to be honest, it was just like… I don’t know, everyone says take it in, but it is a hard thing to take in, it is just mental, like the noise, the number of people that are there screaming, it’s just like so loud and the cameras and it was a bit surreal to be honest, to think back to it. I sometimes watch videos to look back to what it was like but it was just the most amazing feeling”.
With the Champion Conditional title and a Cheltenham Festival winner under his belt in his early twenties, what are his aspirations? “Stay safe and ride as many winners as I can”, he replied, “I’d like to say, ‘oh yeah win a national or more Festival winners’, but they’re not easy to come by, so just to do as well as I possibly can to be honest”.
Thinking about it a little more, Patrick concluded with a laugh, “Trying to spend as little time in Jack Berry House as possible, even though the people there are quite nice”.