Rising star Luca Morgan goes into Cheltenham Festival week on the back of a stand-out season that has seen him establish himself among the top 20 jockeys in the country.

The 21-year-old has ridden 41 winners in the current campaign, many of them for in-form Cotswolds trainer Ben Pauling, and would obviously love to add to that number over the next few days.

“It’s been going great,” said Morgan, who is leading the way in the race to win the conditional jockeys’ title. “It’s been a massive season, Ben Pauling has given me loads of support.

“He’s got some really good horses, it would be massive to win at the Festival but it’s so hard, that’s why it is so special.”

Morgan, who is from Bath, linked up with Pauling when he had just turned 18.

“I was a 10lb claimer,” he recalled. “Ben has pushed me all the way, I’ve lost my claim now.”

Pauling is among the top 10 trainers in the country, having sent out more than 70 winners this season.

He knows what it takes to win at the Festival, most recently last year with Global Citizen in the Grand Annual Handicap Chase when Kielan Woods was on board.

And while Morgan has yet to experience the thrill of a Festival win, he does at least know what it’s like to win at Cheltenham.

One of those wins came on New Year’s Day when he steered the Pauling-trained Fiercely Proud to victory in the JCB ‘Junior’ National Hunt Flat Race over one mile, six furlongs.

“That was really nice,” said Morgan, whose younger brother Beau is also based with Pauling. “He’s entered in Wednesday’s Champion Bumper, he’s quite exciting.”

That’s one of five rides Morgan has at this year’s Festival, with the first on the Pauling-trained Samuel Spade in the Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle tomorrow (4.50pm).

Morgan has ridden more than 80 winners over the past five seasons – his previous best tally was 22 in 2021/22 – and he would love to succeed Kevin Brogan as champion conditional jockey.

“That would be really nice but there’s still a long way to go, there are still a lot of races,” he said.

But while that would look pretty impressive on his CV, give him the choice of the conditional jockeys’ title or a winner at the Festival and his answer is very straightforward.

“I’d take a Festival winner over anything,” he said.