Harry Redknapp: He's my dream and he wouldn't be for sale at any price!

Ex-football manager Harry Redknapp has insisted his Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup contender The Jukebox Man is “not for sale at any price”, as he prepares for his biggest day as a racehorse owner.

Redknapp cheered the eight-year-old gelding to victory in the Ladbrokes King George VI Chase at Kempton Park on Boxing Day, alongside wife Sandra and other members of his family.

Now the 78-year-old is dreaming of landing the most prestigious prize in jumps racing on Friday 13th March at Cheltenham.

Speaking after seeing The Jukebox Man at the yard of trainer Ben Pauling during a media morning arranged by The Jockey Club to promote the Cheltenham Festival, Redknapp said: “It's a dream to have a horse to run in the Gold Cup and go there with a chance. 

“I've had an awful lot of horses, still got an awful lot, but this one has taken us to places that you only dream about as a racehorse owner. He's my dream, he's not for sale and he wouldn't be for sale at any price.

“I'm not saying we're going to win it we've got a serious horse, it's an open race and I think we've got as good a chance as anything.”

Redknapp admitted that despite being involved in professional football for 52 years, most people now want to talk to him about horseracing. 

A regular on Q&A circuits in theatres and halls, he explained: “People ask me about The Jukebox Man more than football! I've been to those theatres for Q&As and they all come up to me afterwards.

“They've not actually come to see me, they've just come to ask me about The Jukebox Man! When I was at Cheltenham I wasn’t interested in talking about football or whatever.

“If I see the boys who used to play for me, they all talk about it. Whenever I've bashed into any of the lads who I've managed or whatever, they always ask about it!”

Redknapp could end up coming face to face with former footballing rival Sir Alex Ferguson at the Cheltenham Festival, as he has many times before on a racecourse.

And he went on: “Alex is great and he loves the game as well. He's a top man, a top football manager and a top bloke really. He loves his racing and I've had a few nice days with him and his pals – they are all great.”

Asked if the feeling on Gold Cup day will be like the morning of a cup final, he went on: “It’ll be very similar. I’ll obviously be very nervous and probably more nervous watching a race than I am even at football on the touchline. You get nervous every jump.

“I hold my breath, you know. It's a nerve-wracking experience. I think when you're stood there, nothing you can do, you're in their hands and you just pray that they come back safe and sound, most importantly.

“You know what you can do. Ben (Pauling, trainer) has done all the work and the staff with the horse. You're just relying on the jockey and the horse doing the job.”

Redknapp has owned horses with Pauling for more than seven years and achieved an ambition of owning a Festival winner when Shakem Up’arry won in 2024.  

He said: “I've been there a long time now, and we've had some good days with Ben. I had Shakem Up’arry winning at The Festival for me. It was a dream to have a Festival winner, and then we could have had two. Ben fancied both of them. He was confident about this boy, as much as he was probably more than Skakem Up’arry. And I thought The Jukebox Man couldn’t win.

“He was like a 20-1 shot, or whatever he was at. But Ben was so bullish, and when he went clear, you were cantering still two out. You thought, Oh, my God, this is unreal. Two out, two winners. We got chinned on the line.

“For the King George, I'm a pessimist. I'm thinking, ‘Oh, he can't win a King Georg. Ben's talking rubbish - he can't win a King George’. But he was so bullish about it and confident.

“In the race I keep thinking he's beat, and then he comes. The funny thing was, next day I went to Newbury, and as I was walking in, Sean Bowen was checking in, getting his ticket, coming in with me. And I said, ‘Hi, Sean’. He said, ‘When we went past the post Ben Jones said, ‘Yes, yes’ and I shouted across at him, ‘What are you doing? You ain't won!’ He thought he'd won. Sean thought he'd won!”

Next month’s Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup is a far cry from Redknapp’s first ownership experience, with friends while managing Bournemouth FC.

He explained: “I started off with my first syndicate when I was manager of Bournemouth. We bought what was called Slick Cherry because Bournemouth are The Cherries. I think there was seven of us in it.

“I think we gave £6,000 for it and we all chipped in with David Elsworth. They were great days. Elsie got a couple of wins out of it and that's when I really sort of got real. I've always been interested from eight years of age. My nan was a bookies’ runner in the East End of London.

“I grew up with it, you know, listening to the Grand National around the radio and going back to my mum winning the sweep at the cake factory she worked in with Foinavon. I've always loved it.

“I went to West Ham as a player at 15 and it was full of punters – they all loved a bet and The Sporting Life would be in the dressing room.”

Trainer Pauling is delighted to have a Gold Cup contender for Redknapp, who he describes as “a national treasure”.

He explained: “We do talk a lot. Not always about horses. Whether it be football, or where Harry is, or what he's up to, or how the other horses are going. We have a good relationship. We get on very, very well. 

“And so having a horse of his calibre in the form, touch wood, that he seems to be in at the moment going into the Gold Cup, is an exceptionally exciting thing for me, for Soph, for the whole team here. But to be doing it with a man like Harry, who not only is a bit of a national treasure, but someone I’ve had a great relationship with for the last seven or eight years now.

“We are very fortunate that the attention is there because Harry is a competitor. He loves the sport. He's not fly by night – he's been in it for far too long. It's attention for the right reasons and hopefully that can be nothing but good for racing.”