As we head into day three of the Cheltenham Festival, the big headline is the celebration of St Patrick’s Thursday, amid the rising excitement ahead of the Gold Cup on Friday.
However, today’s collection of races will see the return of the world’s tallest professional jockey, Mr Jack Andrews.
Stood at a remarkable 6ft 4in, Andrews towers over the average jockey height, which can fall anywhere between 4ft 10in and 5ft 7in, meaning Andrews can be comfortably a foot taller than his fellow competitors.
The 24-year-old, based in Warwick, is booked for two races at this years Cheltenham Festival, starting with the Kim Muir Challenge Cup at 5:30pm on day three and the Hunter’s Chase at 4:10pm on the final day.
In the former race, Andrews will be riding Anightinlambourn, a horse in which he is no stranger to, winning a £13,000 prize race on the same horse in the Cheltenham November meet of last year.
Despite this Cheltenham success, Andrews is yet to ride at the Cheltenham festival, and will become the tallest jockey to ride at the festival.
Even at the height of 6ft 4in, there have been taller riders, albeit not professional, with amateur Welsh Jockey, Pat Sankey standing at 6ft 7in.
Former NBA centre, Manute Bol, remarkably entered a horse into a charity race but did not ride due to arthritis. If he had, it would have made him far and away the tallest jockey of all time, at a staggering 7ft 7in!
