Cue applause for Paddy Brennan after reaching milestone

“It’s probably something I’ll never get over but I’m a firm believer that you’ve got to move forward.”

Those might be suitable words for those upset by the current political and economic climate, both here and across the pond in America, however it was an Irishman who uttered this excellent juxtaposition of negative/positive in March last year.

The particular moment that caused such heartbreak for Paddy Brennan was the unfortunate fall of Cue Card in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, just three fences out from a potential bumper £1m payday for the horse winning the Betfair Chase, King George and, perhaps, the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

“I felt if I had gotten over the fence I’d be able to sit and wait around the bend and go on to win,” believed Brennan at the time. “Who knows if he would’ve won – it was three out – but what I do know is when I jumped into that gap between Don Cossack and Djakadam, I felt I was on a very fresh horse.”

“It’s the hardest thing I’ve had to put myself through for sure. Everything was going to plan and we ended up on the ground.”

That final sentence is a moment that every jump jockey will have literally felt at least once, and Brennan, who rode a landmark 1,000^th winner over jumps in Britain and Ireland at Warwick this week, has had to overcome setbacks during his career.

Like another member of the 1,000 Club (and 2,000, 3,000 and 4,000 for that matter) Sir Anthony McCoy, Brennan started as an apprentice to Jim Bolger, having impressed in local Galway hunts, and then moved over to England in 2000 to join Paul Nicholls at Ditcheat. Following a switch to Philip Hobbs’ yard and a champion conditional jockey title in 2004/5 – a championship led this year by yet another from the Nicholls conveyor belt, Harry Cobden, who was second last season – Brennan, via a strained position as stable jockey to Howard Johnson in the north-east, joined the yard of Nigel Twiston-Davies in Gloucestershire.

The Brennan/Twiston-Davies partnership was a fruitful one, featuring the highs of a Cheltenham Gold Cup win on Imperial Commander in 2010 amongst many others, however, like the relationship with Johnson, which bore the fruit of a World Hurdle win on Inglis Drever in 2007, the ending was an acrimonious one. Twiston-Davies believed that there were enough good rides for both of his sons, Sam and Willy, as well as Brennan. Brennan, having tweeted that “blood is thicker than water”, did not.

Following a spell as a freelance, one in which his career faltered somewhat, Brennan became the retained jockey to Tom George, however, while he still rides for the Smad-based trainer, Brennan’s undoubted talents are now spread more widely, with Fergal O’Brien – former assistant to Nigel Twiston-Davies – grateful to have the services of the man from Galway. That sentiment is reciprocated, however, with Brennan praising O’Brien after guiding Poetic Rhythm to victory in the closing bumper at Cheltenham’s Open Meeting last Sunday. Brennan said: "I'm delighted for Fergal O'Brien - I think he's a trainer that's going to the top. If I have anything to do with it, he'll get there!"

After high-profile wins for Nacarat (who incidentally was the special guest of honour at Brennan’s wedding to Lindsey Hunting) in the Aintree Bowl in 2011 and God’s Own in the 2014 Haldon Gold Cup, Brennan was retained as the regular rider of the Colin Tizzard-trained and Jean Bishop-owned Cue Card. The table below shows Brennan’s top 10 wins on Timeform ratings; half have been on Cue Card. It’s no wonder that he understatedly describes the horse as one of “the best I've ever ridden”.

Where Imperial Commander agonisingly failed by a nose (one of only five times that the jockey has been beaten by the minimum distance) when trying to spoil four-time winner Kauto Star’s Betfair Chase party in 2009 (Brennan: "I was sure that I'd won. There's not many photos when you really think you're not sure which way it's gone, and I didn't even think it would take long to get the result.”), Brennan made amends on Cue Card, who, having won the race under Joe Tizzard in 2013, repeated the feat 12 months ago.

It’s therefore fitting that Brennan will get to celebrate the achievement of 1,000 winners by riding the most high profile one - Cue Card - in Saturday’s Betfair Chase at Haydock.

Brennan achieved his 1,000 winner milestone from over 7,000 rides, which, as the graph above shows, is far from the quickest (McCoy again wins this honour, getting to the same number of winners from under 4,000 rides), however there was an appositeness about the horse which provided Brennan with his landmark achievement.

Colin’s Sister, trained by O’Brien, has recorded two victories since going hurdling – both under Brennan – and is a half-sister to I Am Colin and Colin’s Brother, both fairly useful themselves. Their dam DD’s Glenalla only other foal to race, Hillary C, didn’t show much on her bumper debut in June but that may be because the four-year-old needs more time, rather than just because she doesn’t have ‘Colin’ in her name.

The three Colins all run in the familiar pale green/gold stars silks of Mrs Caroline Beresford-Wylie, who also owned such stalwarts as Battlecry (winner of the River Don Hurdle in 2008 under different ownership), Educated Evans and Irish Raptor, the last-named providing Brennan with a big-race winner when landing the 2009 Topham at Aintree.

Having enjoyed success on horses trained by Twiston-Davies for Beresford-Wylie in the past, it’s fitting that Brennan’s reached this week’s milestone on one of her horses.

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Saturday’s racing at Haydock sees the return of Coneygree, who will be ridden by Aidan Coleman in the absence of the horse’s regular pilot Nico de Boinville, who is still recovering from a fractured arm sustained at Cheltenham’s Open Meeting. Clearly several talks have held place behind the scenes, because the high-profile ride for Coleman will only occur if Menorah, the current mount of Richard Johnson, takes his place in the line-up. Should he not, then Johnson will switch to Coneygree.

While acknowledging that the current Champion Jockey’s naturally aggressive riding style suits Coneygree (who he rode to victory in the Denman Chase two seasons ago), and that connections have made it clear for some time that Johnson is the number one deputy for de Boinville, Coleman, despite struggling so far for winners in November, is having a fine season, highlighted by big-race wins on Third Intention in the Old Roan, Taquin du Seuil in the BetVictor Gold Cup and Fox Norton in the Shloer Chase, and arguably deserves the ride regardless.