Cheltenham Festival 2012: When I felt like I could walk on water, by Tony McCoy A year later I rode Make A Stand to win the Champion Hurdle and Mr Mulligan to win the Gold Cup within three days, which put me on a huge high, especially as Mr Mulligan, a 20-1 chance, though good, was such a gangly, uncoordinated horse. In 1998 I rode five winners at the meeting, three of them in the last three races with Edredon Bleu, Cyfor Malta and Blowing Wind. Three in a row was pretty good. Do that at Cheltenham and your confidence is so high you almost feel you can walk on water. Although you can be sure the valets in the weighing room have a wonderful way of making you keep your feet firmly on the ground. They also pick you up off the floor on the bad days. I had always wanted to win a Champion Chase so it was a big thrill to do that on Edredon Bleu in 2000, that's definitely one highlight, but I still reckon Witchita Lineman (pictured above), who won what is now called the JLT Specialty Chase in 2009 was my finest-ever Cheltenham moment. He needed stoking all the way and came from an impossible position. When I look back, that probably trumps the two Champion Hurdles, the Gold Cup and Champion Chase. Of course there are always disappointments at this special fixture, but two stick with me; the deaths of Gloria Victis in the 2000 Gold Cup and Valiramix in the 2002 Champion Hurdle. Both were potentially exceptional. Gloria Victis was the outstanding novice of that season and fell at the second last, breaking a leg. Obviously, I have often reflected on the race and have come to the conclusion that he must have been feeling a problem, which was gradually getting worse during the race, because it wasn't actually an awful fall although, obviously, the consequences of it were. Valiramix would have won without question. He was cantering when he slipped and fell going to penultimate flight. That was hard to take and much was made in the press that year of my disappointment, which was very evident on my face. I remember telling people if they didn't like how I looked they should look at someone else. There have been other occasions when you cuss yourself for picking the wrong one. The two that hurt most is when I picked Binocular over Captain Cee Bee in the 2008 Supreme Novices and Lady Cricket over Blowing Wind in the Byrne Group Chase in 2002. On both occasions I was second and the other horse won. That's frustrating but it goes with the territory and in the grand scale of things it's nothing compared to losing a horse. This weekend is relatively quiet for me, for obvious reasons, with a couple of rides at Sandown on Saturday and a couple at Market Rasen on Sunday. Merry King (2.05) has been improving and is a good big chasing type, just the sort to benefit from these National Hunt only hurdle races. I rode Speed Master last time and while he deserves to be favourite, Merry King definitely has a good each-way chance. I've won the Imperial Cup five times and Johns Spirit (3.15) might not win but he has an each-way chance. He's consistent and, as a novice, is still open to a bit of improvement. I'd consider Ile de Re a big danger and, of course, Master of Arts, if nothing else because the Pipe's love a crack at this race. With Babysitter (3.20 tomorrow) it all comes down to whether or not he jumps well on the day. If he does he has a good chance, while The Mad Robertson (4.55) has failed to strike me as a star so far.