From “sticking a pen in a couple” whereas having a youthful flutter to proudly owning a King George VI Chase winner and potential Cheltenham Gold Cup victor, Harry Redknapp has come a good distance in horse racing.
The FA Cup-winning soccer supervisor’s love of the game could be traced again to his grandmother Maggie Brown, who was a bookmaker’s runner in London’s East End, at a time when betting retailers and off-course betting had been unlawful.
On Friday, his horse Jukebox Man will try so as to add the Cheltenham showpiece to his King George win in December.
The King George VI Chase is taken into account the most important jumps race of the season earlier than the Cheltenham Festival, whereas the Gold Cup is described by the Jockey Club as essentially the most prestigious steeplechase in the world.
After claiming a photo-finish victory at Kempton Park on Boxing Day to topple 2024 King George winner Banbridge and 9-4 joint-favourite Gaelic Warrior, Redknapp stated: “We’ve come into the Champions League today.”
But can he win bounce racing’s equal of the Champions League?
“We have a chance, but it is a tough race,” Redknapp advised BBC Radio 5 Live:
Among these standing in his means are Gaelic Warrior, Jango Baie, Haiti Couleur and final 12 months’s winner Inothewayurthinkin.
Redknapp stated: “Just to have a runner in the Gold Cup is a dream come true.
“We have had a lot enjoyable with Jukebox Man, which gained the King George on Boxing Day, which is likely one of the most iconic races in the racing calendar.
“To go to the Gold Cup and to have a runner with a bit of a chance is great.”
Victory could be the crowning second of a 70-year love affair with the game that started throughout childhood.
“My nan would take the bets,” he stated. “I’d come out for my school dinner when I’m eight or nine and she was getting put in the back of a police van and taken to Poplar police station.”
Redknapp’s nan would inform him to “stick a pen in a couple“ that would be her bets for the day.
Despite his love of the sport, he has never been tempted to ride – “not for all the money in the world”.
”They get injured, these bounce jockeys, after which they arrive again about three weeks later, he stated.
“They’re not like footballers, are they?”
Redknapp owns shares in 26 horses.
“You’re not at all times profitable,” he stated.
“For each Shakem Up’arry and Jukebox Man and Taurus Bay, there’s plenty of others that by no means actually did something.”
