• Paul Nicholls: ‘She has given Pacha Du Polder a mighty ride to be moment’
• Pendleton: ‘I assume such a quality horse makes life a lot easier’Victoria Pendleton’s jump racing career has,by her own admission, been progressing in baby steps but a narrow defeat in a photo finish here in Dorset marks a much bigger stride forward. The former Olympic cyclist was held by a head on her only ride of the day and for the first time her ambition of taking fraction at the Cheltenham Festival seems reasonable rather than precarious.
This was her first race aboard Pacha Du Polder, or her intended mount in the Festival’s Foxhunter Chase and a much classier animal than those who have been providing the rookie jockey with her point-to-point education in the past two months. There was understandable concern beforehand that,having been brought along steadily, Pendleton might now find herself overhorsed but she coped even to the extent of following the tactics laid out for her by Paul Nicholls.
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Source: theguardian.com