Cheltenham Festival maestro Nico de Boinville on politics, quitting university… and leaving his rivals standing

Nico de Boinville smiles as he pops out his earphones. He has been on a reconnaissance walk around Kempton Park, to examine the ground ahead of a busy day, and something has lifted his spirits.

Has he been listening to a racing bulletin? ‘Absolutely not!’ De Boinville replies, the smile increasing. ‘It’s The Joe Rogan Experience. I try to switch off from racing whenever I can.’

The man entrusted with the precious ride on Constitution Hill is recognised as Britain’s big-race king, his c.v. decorated with 16 Cheltenham Festival wins. He is ice-cold when the pressure is intense, his blank expression when riding makes you think of a fighter pilot executing a mission.

But strip away the racing veneer and you find so many more levels. Cheltenham is on the horizon but it would be a waste to spend time talking shop, and so begins a conversation that features sliding doors, photographic memories, one-club men and Donald Trump.

As his listening habits indicate, Nicolai Chastel de Boinville (to give him his full title) is attuned with current affairs. He might have been a political commentator himself had he stuck to his original plan of reading politics at Newcastle University.

‘I couldn’t cope with that lifestyle,’ he says, grimacing when Freshers’ Week is mentioned. ‘It made me so ill. Four weeks in, I was really down, depressed and been to one lecture. I was supposed to hand in an essay and I thought, “Nah… I’m off!”’

Horses and the outdoors were his passions. As a young boy, he loved Flat racing and had an obsession watching Frankie Dettori partner Godolphin’s all-time greats — ‘I used to pretend I was riding Swain when on my little pony,’ he says with a smile — so was the politics degree a route to being an MP?

‘Noooo!’ he stresses, rocking back in his chair. ‘I love politics and keeping abreast of what’s going on in the world. With Trump, there is a story every day! It’s unreal, isn’t it? It’s just interesting how it all works. It’s not just the politics of a country that interests me, it’s the politics of everything.

‘I find Formula One politics fascinating. Trump? It’s just interesting… what annoys me about MPs and politicians is they have made careers of being career politicians — never answering questions, never having done a real day’s work, never knowing what the average person goes through.

‘These are everyday problems. That is why it is interesting when you bring people in from the outside to try to solve those problems. I’d much rather know where I stand and vote for someone, say, who has been in the army and knows how to work with a team of people.’

For now, guiding the fortunes of some of the best National Hunt horses around — his Cheltenham rides include Jonbon and Lulamba, favourites for the Champion Chase and Triumph Hurdle — is nirvana.

De Boinville has worked at Seven Barrows, the base of Nicky Henderson, since 2009. He rides occasionally for other yards but the relationship he has with his boss makes comparisons with the academy footballer who graduates to become club captain easy.

‘I don’t have a team but growing up, I was a big Southampton fan,’ De Boinville says. 

‘My cousins used to drag me along. I loved watching Matt Le Tissier play. I love boxing, I love showmen and those who do special things.

‘When I started at Seven Barrows, there was a host of young jockeys and it was really competitive. When you’re young, you feel like you should be running instead of walking and there was a time it felt like I was treading water. I just wanted to get on with things.’ 

Youthful impetuosity led to a conversation with Henderson that could have gone either way. De Boinville, frustrated about the lack of rides he was receiving, explained in November 2012 that he was thinking about trying his luck elsewhere.

‘No, he wasn’t very happy,’ De Boinville recalls. ‘It was just before evening stables. He said to me, “Go out! Do your job! Then come back at 6pm!”. 

‘So I went back later and he had a chance to calm down. The next day I was declared on something at the Hennessey meeting. The horse, Cucumber Run, came second at 33-1.

‘A couple of lads tried to do the same as me the following year and it didn’t work! I was fully prepared to go. Sliding doors? Well, yes. It was a fairly pivotal moment.’

Look how it turned out. Here he stands today with 49 Grade Ones — kickstarted by success in the 2015 Cheltenham Gold Cup on Coneygree — and he knows the half-century could be brought up by Constitution Hill in Tuesday’s Champion Hurdle.

He pauses for a moment when it is explained that his name is associated with some of the most remarkable success of the last decade, from Sprinter Sacre to Altior and the remarkable Constitution Hill.

‘As a spectator, you take photographs in your memory, don’t you?’ he says. ‘When you think back to something special, you don’t look at your phone you think about what’s in your mind. That’s how I operate. I remember going to watch Southampton play Arsenal at the Dell.

‘Patrick Vieira was warming up. He left an imprint on my brain. He looked so huge on TV but I remember looking at him, how tall and lanky he was. What a player. So it’s a funny perspective when you are on the pitch or on the horse and not in the stands.’

It means there is a business-like approach but do not be kidded that there isn’t part of him heading to the course with dreams.

‘He is different,’ he says of Constitution Hill, on whom he has 10 wins from 10 starts. ‘I’ve ridden two others who can do what he does on the gallops — and that is leave good horses standing. He is “woosh” — they’re gone for dead.’

Nico de Boinville is participating in the David Power Jockeys’ Cup, to find out more visit www.greatbritishracing.com