NOTHING CAN COMPARE TO THE THRILL

RETIRED Irish jockey DARYL JACOB - who rode 31 Grade One winners and also had three successes at the Cheltenham Festival during a 21-year career in the saddle - talked to NEIL SQUIRES about the thrill of riding in racing's biggest event of the year.

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THE Cheltenham Festival is our Olympics. It means the world to every jockey riding there. It is the four biggest racing days of our year.

If we could, we'd want it to be Cheltenham every week of the year because it is the best racing in Europe with the best horses, the best jockeys, the best trainers and those huge crowds. It's a very, very magical four days.

There's nothing that I will do for the rest of my life that will come anywhere near the excitement and the adrenaline of riding a winner there.

When you're walking down that chute with all the cheers and the noise, your heart rate is hitting thousands of beats per second and you're just taking in the moment.