DESSIE HUGHES: BRIAN O'CONNORgets the views of the former jockey and successful trainer as the festival beckons

IT IS 35 years since Dessie Hughes first went to Cheltenham and he remains enthralled by the place. As both a jockey and a trainer he has reached the pinnacle of festival glory and he leaves no one in doubt about how unique the upcoming four days are going to be. There’s just one blemish on his Cheltenham horizon – and that’s the four days.

“I think they’ve made a total hames of it by stretching it out to four days. There isn’t one person I associate with who likes it. I’ve felt that from the start. When it was just three days there were nothing but top-class races which made for great racing and for a great event. But four just drags it out too long. You’ve got mares hurdles and conditional jockeys’ hurdles: they’ve diluted it,” he says.

Considering the festival has no bigger fan the criticism is significant. This is no hard-up punter on the skids after three days of betting his brains out. Instead we’re talking about a man who won every big Cheltenham race worthy of the name as a jockey and has added a pair of Champion Hurdles to that CV as a trainer with Hardy Eustace. As Cheltenham pedigrees go, Hughes has a hard one to beat.

This year he hopes to have up to six runners, led by the remarkable Hardy Eustace who is set for a fifth crack at the Champion Hurdle he won in 2004 and 2005. Throw in his SunAlliance success in 2003 and he is becoming as much of a festival fixture as his trainer.

Also in the mix is Ireland’s main hope in the Ryanair Chase, Schindlers Hunt, as well as Siegemaster who could end up in the RSA Chase. Flag Of Honour could go for the Fred Winter, The Rall in the Pertemps and the Albert Bartlett contender Western Charmer.

Despite possessing such a team at his Curragh base, however, Hughes remains in no doubt what the best part of the National Hunt game is. “I’d still be a jockey if I could,” he said. “I loved it right up to the end. It was fantastic. Training is a business and it is tough keeping everyone happy and the horses right. It’s a big responsibility. It takes over your whole life, all day, every day, and leaves no time for anything else.”

Ask him for a favourite memory and he goes back to his first winner, Davy Lad, in the 1975 SunAlliance Hurdle. “He won two or three hurdles up to October-November and then hurt his hock. He spent almost a month standing in his box and he didn’t appear again until Cheltenham itself. He had no run in between but he started 5 to 2 favourite and won. We knew what we had!” he remembers.

An acknowledged master of riding the track, Hughes doesn’t go along with the more recent view that Cheltenham is not so much of a galloping track anymore: “It is a big course and there’s a lot of room, especially down the back where there’s no rail. There’s plenty of room to manoeuvre.

“I first went to Cheltenham in 1974 to ride a horse in the Triumph Hurdle and not much has changed at the place since – except the parade ring. The track is exactly the same and the top horses are still the top horses; the same atmosphere, the same anticipation.”

What also remains the same is the benefit of being a proven operator around the track and while Hardy Eustace is in a league of his own in ticking off that box, it is also a plus point for Schindlers Hunt and Siegemaster.

The latter ran a close fourth in last year’s Grade One Albert Bartlett Hurdle over three miles and has a Grade Two success this season over fences. Hughes has him in the RSA Chase after ruling out a tilt at the four-miler. “He will get every yard of the trip. He’s an out-and-out stayer. It’s a big plus for me that he has form on the hurdles track. It’s a big help,” he says.

Schindlers Hunt ran in last year’s Champion Chase and did as well as could be expected behind the devastating Master Minded. A victory in the Leopardstown Chase proved the two miles and five of the Ryanair will hold no terrors and he enjoyed a good warm-up over two miles at Naas.

The festival was extended to four days to accommodate races like the Ryanair and if Schindlers Hunt can emerge best in the race, then the irony won’t be lost on his trainer. No one will enjoy it more.