Geraghty facing a hectic schedule

Drumree jockey Barry Geraghty will be teaming up with top UK trainer Nicky Henderson this season. Following the retirement of Mick Fitzgerald on medical advice, Geraghty, who was associated with the great Moscow Flyer, will partner many of the top horses for the English trainer. The exception will be horses like Binocular which is owned by JP McManus and will, as usual, be partnered by AP McCoy. However, Geraghty will still have plenty of opportunities to add to his impressive tally of big race winners in the UK and he will travel to England for rides although he will not be based there. The popular Drumree jockey will probably have a similar routine to Ruby Walsh who has travelled over and back to England for the past few years and still managed to win the NH championship here last season. Geraghty is also a former champion jockey since he burst on to the scene as champion conditional rider about a decade ago. Geraghty is excited by the prospect of riding Henderson"s stable stars and has already been to the Seven Barrows yard. 'It is a very exciting prospect for me and obviously I will be riding a lot of good horses,' said Geraghty. 'I went over to the yard last week and I suppose if there is one horse that I"m really looking forward to it"s Punjabi. 'I won on him at the Punchestown Festival earlier this year and he has progressed so he should be a big contender for the top two-mile hurdle races this season,' added the Drumree man. However, Geraghty will still be in action on a regular basis this side of the Irish Sea. 'Most of the quality racing in Ireland is on a Sunday, so hopefully I will be riding in England most Saturdays and a few days during the week,' he stated. 'I will continue to ride for Jessica Harrington as well so I"ve got the best of both worlds really,' he concluded. Although the Cheltenham Festival is still seven months away, preparations are already underway and last week racecourse managing director Edward Gillespie announced some changes to the format for 2009. The first race will start at 1.30 each day instead of the traditional 2.0 'With the gates opening at 10.30, it can seem a long time until the first race, so we are going to commence racing at 1.30,' commented Gillespie There will also be a new race for 2009 with the introduction of a race for conditional jockeys. This will provide a total of 26 races with seven-race cards on the Wednesday and Friday. The full order of running will be revealed at a pre-Festival media launch at the racecourse on Tuesday, 7th October. The 2009 Cheltenham Festival will take place from Tuesday, 10th to Friday, 13th March next year.