In sport, there are a handful of superstars where referencing them by a single name is all that is required to kick-start a conversation. Think Ali, Cruyff or even Freddie – the one-time England all-rounder ‘Freddie’ Flintoff.

In the world of jump racing there’s Jonjo O’Neill… except that you don’t need the ‘O’Neill’ of course. Jonjo is known simply as ‘Jonjo’ and a quick look at his record over the past five decades or so, as a jockey and a trainer, tells you everything you need to know about the greatness of the man.

Even though the 65-year-old has been at or near the top of the tree for the best part of half a century, the hunger to produce winners from his Jackdaws Castle home in the heart of the Cotswolds is still driving him forward.

And there’s no better place than the winner’s enclosure at Prestbury Park, of course, particularly during the Cheltenham Festival, which gets under starter’s orders on Tuesday 13th March.

“The Festival is massive,” Jonjo said. “It’s there all year round in the back of your mind, when you’re buying a young horse or working out where the more experienced horses might run. Everyone wants to have a runner there.

“Living so close as we do, there’s a bit of extra pressure, not that we let it get to us or we try not to. We all love the place but it’s a lot more fun with a winner or two.

“It’s just got bigger and bigger and now there are more opportunites with the extra races, it’s opening up a bit for owners who mightn’t have felt they could get there before. It’s not just the prize money – though that helps! – it’s the atmosphere; you can barely move for the people and most of them want you to tip them a winner!”

Jonjo has had his fair share of winners, of course, but that burning desire to be first past the post is as fierce as ever.

“What’s gone is gone,” he explained. “I suppose it helps but every day is a fresh challenge and if you can’t look forward you might as well give up. Expecially with horses, there’s always one coming into the yard that makes you wonder, ‘Could this be the next really good one?’. It’s a great way of life and the people are brilliant – well most of them are! – so why wouldn’t you want to keep trying to be successful?”

And success has pretty much followed Jonjo around almost from the first day he jumped on a horse. But how does training a winner compare with riding a winner at the Cheltenham Festival?

“It’s a lot harder, that’s for certain,” he admitted. “When you’re riding, all you have to do, really, is listen to what the trainer has to say and then you’re on your own and you work it out as the race unravels.

“With a bit of luck you’re in with chance turning in and then it’s every man for himself – win some, lose some.

“With training, it’s completely different. You’ve known the horses since they were babies and you know all their little quirks and that, so getting them anywhere near a racecourse can be a challenge.

“We’ve been lucky enough to win a few at Cheltenham and you just have to pinch yourself that it is actually happening. Mind you, there’s often very little time to enjoy it as you’ll probably have another one running in the next and you’re mind’s more on that than the actual winning.

“It’s not until the evening when you sit down and watch the videos that you realise – we did actually win that!”

The Cheltenham Festival is a ‘mad’ four days, of course. The world of jump racing descends on Prestbury Park and the 250,000 fans who flock through the gates help to make it four days that are unmatched anywhere else in the world.

There’s so much that is good about the Festival, but ask Jonjo what is the best thing and he has no doubts.

“It has to be the competition,” he said. “There’s nowhere like it in this game where you have all the big yards competing in the same races and then, more often than not, the race is won by someone you’ve barely heard of!

“You can’t get enough of it. When you win at Cheltenham, you know you’ve done alright and you’d better enjoy it as, chances are, they’ll be a disappointment waiting for you round the corner!”

So what would he consider to be a successful Cheltenham Festival this year?

“At this stage, just getting 10 or 12 horses there is the target,” he admitted. “We’ll start worrying about how they might get on nearer the time.

“You have to have the right horses to go there with a chance – there’s no point taking one there that won’t thrive in that atmosphere with big fields and a pace they won’t experience anywhere else.

“You can often forget the form through the winter when the ground is heavy and the pace is slow. At Cheltenham you have to be able to keep up with the pace from the start or you’ve no chance.

“Getting them all back home in one piece is then what we’re all praying will happen. If you can get a few finish near the front that’s good and, who knows, one or two of them might have a little bit of luck.”

Luck plays a part in all sport, of course, but so does hard work. You don’t enjoy the success that Jonjo has enjoyed unless you put in the hard yards. All of his horses that head for the Festival will be in tip-top shape, but who does he have the highest hopes for?

“We’ll probably have a few in the handicaps and, hopefully, one or two nice young horses,” he said. “All being well, Minella Rocco will line up in the Gold Gup. He’s got a good track record what with winning the National Hunt Chase and putting in a decent performance last year so you never know. I’d say More Of That will run earlier in the week and with him you never know.”

And while Jonjo may not be absolutely certain about More Of That, Jonjo’s supporters can be sure that he will again be one of the big players at this year’s Festival.

One look at his CV will tell you that. As a jockey he rode more than 900 winners from 1970 to 1986 and was twice champion jockey. He won the big races too, winning the Gold Cup and Champion Hurdle on Dawn Run in the mid-1980s as well as winning the Champion Hurdle with Sea Pigeon at the start of that decade.

As a trainer he achieved something he never managed as jockey when he saddled Don’t Push It to Grand National glory in 2010, nine years after he had moved to Jackdaws Castle. Two years after that great day at Aintree, O’Neill was centre stage again as Tony McCoy rode Synchronised to victory in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

There are many, many other successes, of course, and if O’Neill has his way, there will be many more to come. That’s pretty much a certainty!