'This is our festival and we're going to compete, throw our best darts at it and serve it up to whoever turns up'
Ben Pauling talks to our Lambourn correspondent as he puts together his strongest Cheltenham squad
You couldn't say Ben Pauling is hard to pin down, but he is certainly in demand. By the time he sits down for a chat with the Racing Post, his morning has already involved Nick Luck's podcast and an interview with Sky Sports Racing.
Anyone who has dealt with Pauling since he started training in 2013 will recognise a willing and engaging subject, so it's no surprise he is a go-to trainer for the media – especially as he had hogged headlines the previous weekend with a treble at Ascot.
"It's different from how it was, but I'm getting older," he replies when asked what celebrations were like. "I took the staff down the pub for a few drinks, but we're much busier now, so writing ourselves off for three days isn't great."
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Published on 25 February 2024inInterviews
Last updated 14:11, 25 February 2024
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- Rod Street: 'Racing spends a lot of time talking to itself in a bubble - we're not blessed with people who inhabit the wider world'
- 'There's a time to be serious because it's a multi-million-pound business - but you've got to have a laugh'
- 'All of us who ply our trade training horses are dreamers - to put so much into it you must have a dream'
- 'There was a moment of rage - but he's a magnificent horse and it suits me that he's passed under the radar'
- When Patrick Mullins met Jack Kennedy: 'You could say I've been lucky - they're just broken bones and they heal'