Cheltenham Festival 2016: Is Victoria Pendleton ready for biggest test?

Supporters and sceptics tell Jon Freeman how they feel the Olympian-turned-jockey will fare in Friday’s Foxhunter Chase

Opinion is divided on whether the former Olympic cyclist Victoria Pendleton should be riding at Cheltenham (Getty Images)

Mick Fitzgerald

Grand National-winning jockey and Channel 4 pundit

I must say that after she was unseated at Fakenham I thought if this is as good as she is, she’s going to struggle. This isn’t tiddlywinks. Racing is dangerous. She seemed to have no confidence. I wondered whether I was being too hard on her, but more than anything I was disappointed, I thought she was better than that.

I had spent a day with her doing a television promo and had been so impressed with her enthusiasm. You can’t help but want her to do well. She hadn’t just bought into the whole thing, she was revelling in it. And she’s a super-fit athlete. I think she must have been told to just pop round at Fakenham against poor opposition and the horse didn’t get the right signals.

But then at Wincanton she was like another person, so much more assured. It was a completely different ball game. It was as if the competitive athlete took over, as if she knew it was her final chance, because if it had gone wrong again, I think she would have known herself.

So yes, I’d say she is good enough to be riding in the Foxhunter. Capable of competing, good enough to be competitive.

John Francome

Seven-time champion jockey

Of course, I hope she gets round safely, but if she was my sister or my daughter I would be worried because she’s not ready.

Pacha Du Polder is a very good horse and she’ll be fine when everything’s going in a straight line, but if the horse jinks, she’ll be off. She is obviously terribly plucky, but this isn’t hockey. You don’t just fall off and get a bruise. I could take her to meet people I know who are now in wheelchairs after bad falls in races.

I said what I said (“she’s an accident waiting to happen, she wants saving from herself”) after she was unseated at Fakenham and she has won since at Wincanton, but I still don’t think she’s ready and I’m not sure she’ll be ready in another year.

Hayley Turner

Most successful British woman Flat jockey

I think, now that the decision has been made, everybody needs to embrace it and get behind her and not expect the worst; be really positive and not create problems before they happen.

Is she ready? Obviously, there are different opinions. It’s going to be a lot tougher now against all those top amateurs, but she has to make that step some time and winning that race at Wincanton was good timing, good for her confidence.

She’s an icon, so of course everyone wants her to do well and doesn’t want it to end in tears. But this is racing. Everyone is worried for her.

She won’t suffer from stage fright, will she? And she’s happy to take the risk, so let’s get behind her.

Fiona Needham

Former amateur rider. Won the 2002 Foxhunter Chase aboard Last Option

I was 34 when I won the Foxhunter and had been champion lady amateur, but even so the experience I had when Last Option finished third three years earlier stood me in good stead.

First of all there were the butterflies when I went down to the first fence and looked back up at the stands. As for the race, my dad, who had ridden at the Festival, warned me that nobody would give me an inch – and he was right. Fortunately, the horse rose to the occasion and I think I did, too.

Victoria is a great athlete, so will cope with the butterflies and a lot of experts say she is ready. But riding at the Cheltenham Festival is a completely different kettle of fish to anything she has done so far and I would have thought waiting another year wouldn’t have hurt.

She’s very tidy and does all the right things, but it seems to me like it’s all been a bit sanitised. I think she needs more time to learn to cope with the unexpected so that it becomes second nature.

Apart from anything else, Cheltenham is a tricky course to ride and unexpected things do happen. This might be controversial, but I think a few days out hunting would do her some good.

She has, though, done amazingly well and one thing she has highlighted is just how hard it is to ride over jumps. There’s more respect out there now!

It’s been very positive publicity for the sport, too. I just hope she does well on the day and that it doesn’t turn into negative publicity.

Barry Orr

Betfair-Paddy Power

This was always significantly more than a publicity stunt. We thought of the idea before we thought of the rider and when Victoria’s name was first mentioned we knew immediately, because of her success as a cyclist and her character and determination, that she was the right person to do this.

The biggest thing was getting the right team together and we did that, getting the coach, Yogi Breisner, and trainers Paul Nicholls and Lawney Hill and her husband Alan (who won the 1985 Foxhunter). There were no templates for this, but everything seemed to align.

Of course, there have been peaks and troughs along the way, but that’s what makes it so sweet now that they have made the decision that Victoria is ready to go on Friday.