Davy Russell hoping for Cheltenham Festival fairytale after coming out of retirement to get back on the saddle

Davy Russell was always going to be heading for Cheltenham. He just didn’t know whether he’d need to pack racing kit or just his civvies.

Russell’s incredible riding story has yet another chapter to be written after a dramatic turn of events which sees him back at the Festival again. Three months ago, he declared his career was over. Having fought back from serious injuries to hit the heights again, he finally called time on riding seven days before Christmas after winning aboard Liberty Dance at Thurles. Yet fate would soon dramatically intervene.

Less than a month from that announcement of retirement, a broken leg for Jack Kennedy saw Russell return almost instantly to fill the gap left by Gordon Elliott’s stricken No.1 jockey. Kennedy’s failure to recover in time for the Festival now means the 43-year-old will again race on the iconic turf. Russell is synonymous with the meeting. He was the leading jockey five years ago, incredibly, he rode at least one winner there for 13 consecutive meetings between 2006 and 2018. Such is his affection for Cheltenham and the biggest four days in the game, he would probably have come over anyway to watch, but now he’ll be in the thick of it once more.

Russell said: “I’d be a fan of the racing anyway, so I’m sure I would have been going over there and keeping an eye on things. I’d have travelled alright, but it is always nicer to be going over there for a reason. I’m sure it would still have been nice to go there just as a spectator, but I wouldn’t really have known what to do with myself. It would certainly have been different for sure, but I won’t have to face that for another while yet.”

Of course, it’s the sickening setback for Kennedy which has brought about the current