Racing: 'I'm like a band leader practising in the bath'

Countdown to Cheltenham: David Mansell admits he is a most ungainly rider - but he may be sitting on a winner

A depressingly bleak morning in south Herefordshire, yet the grey blanket obscuring the Black Mountains and mizzle in the atmosphere cannot dampen the sensation of heady anticipation. David Mansell, an appropriately named partner of a mount charged with phenomenal horsepower, hugs his Cheltenham Festival hope. "I couldn't have bought what Hector's done for me," he says. "The greatest fun ride in the world, aren't you?"

"Hector" is the stable name of the two-mile chaser Eskleybrook, once trained by Nigel Twiston-Davies, now the charge of the permit-holder businessman Vic Gethin, based at Stoke Prior near Leominster. The 10-year-old bay is a smart animal, too, having won six chases before a horrendous fall at Aintree two years ago when another casualty at the fence crashed on top of him, breaking five of his ribs.

Initially it was thought the home-bred mount might have to be put down, but he survived and was "nursed" back to health by Gethin's wife, Christine, as he recuperated in his box. Once fit again, though, the horse simply was not himself back on the racecourse. But his owners did not lose faith in him; neither did Mansell, the 39-year-old amateur jockey who, hitherto, had enjoyed a reputation as a levitator of lost causes.

"I'll ride anything," is the enthusiastic declaration of the point-to-point rider, born near Worcester. "I don't care how bad they are. I get on well with them because I hunt them round. I'm an amateur's amateur; like a band leader practising in the bath, I'm afraid. But I consider myself to be a horseman, not a jockey.

"I drag 'em round, and if they make a mistake, I manage to sit it out [he touches wood]. One horse, called Merger Mania, had a terrible reputation. He was so reckless at his fences they said he'd kill somebody. But I got on him, and we managed a third first time out and I eventually won a couple on him."

Eskleybrook does not come into that category, but Gethin believed that his horse would benefit from Mansell's unique style of horsemanship, even though there could be no greater comparison than with Tony McCoy, a jockey characterised by his power, driving rhythm and neatness in the saddle. Mansell is similarly vigorous but, as he ruefully concedes, decidedly untidy as he lunges up and down in the stirrups.

Yet, it works for him, as he demonstrated at Sandown at the start of last month when he competed against the professional élite for the first time and famously got the better of the seven-times champion McCoy in a stirring finish. Eskleybrook should have carried 9st 7lb in that handicap chase, allowing for Mansell's 7lb claim as an amateur. The rider's weight is normally well over 11 stone. "The professional riders and their agents were all ringing up, asking for the ride. It was very depressing because I knew I couldn't do the weight. It was a big prize [over £12,000] for a small yard. I told Vic and Chris, 'I can't do the weight,' but they said, 'If you don't ride him we won't run him.' So, I set about losing it."

He barely ate or drank for three days. "God almighty, it was hard. It was freezing cold at the time and I couldn't even have a cup of tea. Then I drove to Sandown with the heater on full; it was like being basted all the way down. I arrived, wearing a woolly hat and gloves and this stinking, dirty, sweaty, waterproof suit. Because it's plastic you just sweat and sweat, and it smells like a pig's underwear. I got out of my old van and there's Richard Johnson and Robert Thornton next to me in suit and tie, climbing out of a Mercedes."

Mansell actually made 10st 3lb. "The only thing about Hector is that for most of the race you just sit pretty and drop your hands. I only had to push the last bit." That he did, to dramatic effect. "I thought we were going to be second [to McCoy on Martin Pipe's Tiutchev]," he recalls. Then all of a sudden mine's jumped the last and rallied and beat him. Afterwards I just broke down and cried. I could not believe it." Nor could anyone else. The horse started at 50-1.

The pair won again three weeks later at Kempton. The champion was again behind him. "I spoke to McCoy beforehand and he ignored me. He'd had a fall in the race before and you could see he was sore. I said to him, 'How're you feeling?' and he just turned and walked away. Then down the back straight, he was heckling me, shouting, 'Keep straight, keep straight'. And I yelled back, 'For f*** sake, what's the matter with you?' My horse was in front. He wasn't upsides me. McCoy was just trying to put a bit of pressure on me, I think. Well, I may be an amateur, but I'm not 17. I ride in a lot tougher races than that. The Welsh boys you get in point-to-points round here, they don't mess with you. They'll push you straight through the wings, no messing."

Briefly a conditional jockey in his youth, it was only eight years ago that, together with his partner Rachel Reynolds, who does much of the work with Eskleybrook, Mansell started to enter point-to-points. He won the West Midlands novices rider's title in his first season. His 30 victories have included a 675-1 double at the Hunter Chase night at Cheltenham on Epsilo De La Ronce and Maggies Brother last March.

Eskleybrook is home-bred, the third foal of a mare who came up for auction at Hereford Market. "She was there to settle a debt, and probably would have gone for meat if we hadn't bought her," recalls Christine Gethin, who paid £500.

In his early years, the mare's son was put out to grass at Eskley, a village in the Black Mountains, hence his official name. "When he was a foal he used to try and eat everyone," she adds. "The film about Hannibal Lecter had just come out, so at home he's called Hector."

Eskleybrook would have been entered for the prestigious Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Festival if Gethin had got his permit through in time. Instead, he goes for the Grand Annual on Gold Cup day, probably carrying top weight – to Mansell's relief. No wasting this time. "The horse is on top of his game. And God loves a trier – I hope."