DEREK O’Connor’s phone is busy on Tuesday evening, just under a week out from Cheltenham.

“When you called me there a second ago, I was just sorting out one of my rides for next week so that’s why I couldn’t answer,” he says.

O’Connor’s phone is busy all the time in fairness. Busy during the point-to-point season and busy in his role as an agent for Goffs UK. But this time of year, Cheltenham negotiations and calculations are hot on the agenda, and have been for weeks, if not months.

So who has secured the Galway native’s services?

“I’m riding Forza Milan for James Nash in the National Hunt Chase,” O’Connor says. “He’s a good ride, he’s been fairly consistent. He has two nice runs, including one behind Carefully Selected.

“He seems a good stayer and James’s horses are in good form. It’s impossible to be confident about a horse in a race at Cheltenham but he’s a good ride to get and I’m looking forward to it.

Foxhunter

“In the Foxhunter, I’ve a link with two horses. I could ride Enda Bolger’s Staker Wallace or I could ride Minella Rocco. I went over to ride Minella Rocco a couple of weeks ago in Wetherby and he put in a fine display, beating Hazel Hill who was last year’s winner. Hopefully both of them get in but I’m just a bit unsure as to which one I’ll ride. Ground could play a part we’ll know more closer to the time.”

No point deciding now. There is precedence for this sort of decision. O’Connor already rode Minella Rocco to a Cheltenham Festival win, the National Hunt Chase in 2016, but he had been pencilled in to ride Native River in that contest the week before. He got a call from the connections of Minella Rocco and made the call to get off Colin Tizzard’s horse and ride him, the favourite instead.

It was a big call, but it was a percentage call. And it was Minella Rocco who led home Native River in the race, the pair of them well clear. Minella Rocco would go on to finish second in a Gold Cup 12 months after and Native River went one better than his old rival the next season.

Many believed at the time it was O’Connor who made the difference on the day of the National Hunt Chase. He’ll tell you it was the horse but ask him about why Irish amateur jockeys are in such demand for trainers on both sides of the Irish Sea and he’ll tell you why.

“We (Irish amateur riders) get a pile of opportunities in Ireland,” he says. “The Turf Club give amateur riders a wonderful chance. They give us bumpers every day to ride in and a whole host of amateur races throughout the whole year. They allow us opportunities to ride at all the big festivals – Leopardstown, Punchestown, Fairyhouse, Galway, Killarney and all the rest.

“When you’re an amateur rider and you’re in a weighroom along with professional riders, you have to act professional and you have to up your game in order to fit in. I think the Turf Club are the main reason for the amateur riders in Ireland being so good.”

There are three races at the Cheltenham Festival confined to amateur riders, the National Hunt Chase, the Kim Muir and the Foxhunter. Out of the combined previous 30 renewals, Ireland-based jockeys have ridden 21 winners.

O’Connor has four of those winners but he was a while waiting for his first. So much so, he tried to play down his own connection with the Cheltenham Festival.

“I had a bad run. I had a lot of disappointments,” he recalls. “I’d a lot of placed horses and had a few fallers as well. I fell a couple of times in the National Hunt Chase, one time on an Emma Lavelle horse at the second last when I thought I was going to win.

“I was placed on a heap of occasions actually, even back when I was claiming 7lbs, I was placed twice on Parsons Legacy in the Kim Muir.

“It can really disappoint you Cheltenham. As much as it’s a great place to win, it’s a hard place to take a defeat. I suppose you try and protect yourself by playing something down, it just helps you accept a loss better and I suppose that’s what I did. It was only natural.”

That disappointment and that general view of what Cheltenham was worth all changed at the 2011 Festival when Chicago Grey sliced through the field to take the National Hunt Chase and then two days later Zemsky took advantage of a last fence faller to win the Foxhunter. Like those London buses, they said.

One of the greats

The Chicago Grey ride, held up at the back of a big field for the majority of the four-mile trip, is still hailed as one of the great Festival rides but it was special for more than just that.

“It was a great occasion. He is owned by very good family friends of ours – the Earls family from Galway – and it was just a great day. It was Gordon’s first Cheltenham Festival winner as well and sure what he has gone on to do has been absolutely incredible. You never forget your first.”

O’Connor’s other two rides came in the famous green and gold, first Minella Rocco, which provided a significant link with J.P. McManus, whom he rode Any Second Now to win the Kim Muir 12 months ago.

“Minella Rocco and Native River. That was a hell of a race. He has hardly sparked since then. He ran a really good race in the Gold Cup the year after and I’d say it might have just broke his heart getting beat. It’s hard to get back to that level of form but only until Wetherby, that was the first spark in a long time so hopefully he can get back to himself.

“Any Second Now was very well-handicapped at the time, albeit he had some very good form going into the race and Ted had him in great form going into the race.

“Ted Walsh was a hero in our house growing up. He was one of those names that you idolised as a child, what he did as an amateur rider so to get an opportunity to ride him a Cheltenham Festival winner was amazing really. The whole Walsh family are idolised in every racing household in Ireland, so it was brilliant.”

Every year at Cheltenham is a big year but there is a particularly important renewal of the National Hunt Chase coming next week. O’Connor rode in last season’s much-criticised renewal, his Ok Corral was heavily hampered by a plethora of fallers in a contest that only four of 18 horses completed.

Qualifying criteria

The British Horse Association reacted by lowering the race distance and changing the qualifying criteria for both horses and jockeys, a move which was scorned by some but is something O’Connor is content with.

“I think the restrictions have confined the race,” he says. “We are going to have a very restricted field with a select bunch of horses and with a select bunch of riders and I think the race will run off with out any issues this year, I’d be certain of it.

“I think there was a bit of an overreaction to the race last year but our sport is under pressure from outside bodies.

“We have to bend a bit and work with them so if restrictions in races can help with public perception, then we have to do it.”

Out of the saddle, O’Connor will have a vested interest in a number of races next week, through his role as an agent for Goffs UK. The role involves liaising with Irish breeders, owners and trainers to bring their horses to Doncaster. It’s a role he loves.

“It’s a wonderful job. The Doncaster Sale is a wonderful sale so to be honest my job is very easy. It’s the most pleasurable job that I have and it’s quite easy to encourage people to come to Doncaster.”

Cheltenham has become all consuming and the Irish point scene is feeling the benefits. There are not many better placed than O’Connor to act as a middle man between that field and potential buyers.

“It’s not necessarily Cheltenham or Aintree horses they are looking for first and foremost,” O’Connor says.

“What they want in Britain is a ‘Saturday’ horse. That’s how they phrase it. A horse that can compete in the big Saturday televised races. And these are generally the ones who can get to Cheltenham later in the season in any case.”

Eventually all roads lead to the Cheltenham Festival and it is there that O’Connor will hope to ride Festival winner number five next week.