“It’s our chance to take on the juggernauts of the horseracing world.”

Those are the words of Barry Preece as he looks forward to his James Evans-trained Risk And Roll taking on all-comers in the Pertemps Network Final Handicap Hurdle at Cheltenham tomorrow (2.10pm).

It is the first time that the 52-year-old, who acquired his first horse in 2010, has sent out a runner at the Cheltenham Festival and although Risk And Roll is a big outsider, he’s really looking forward to the race.

“Yes, I am,” said Preece, who lives in Charlton Kings, just a short gallop from Cheltenham Racecourse. “Being from Cheltenham, I’ve always wanted to have a horse at the Cheltenham Festival. Cheltenham has an aura about it, especially at the Festival. I love Cheltenham.”

And Preece insists that Risk And Roll, whose most recent win came at Huntingdon in January last year, is not going there just to make up the numbers.

Top trainers such as Paul Nicholls, Nicky Henderson and Gordon Elliott all have runners entered, but Preece said: “Any horse that gets to the Festival is high calibre. He’s earned the right to be there. His results aren’t bad and you never know. He’ll be very lightly weighted.

“He’ll be up against some serious horses and some serious trainers, but he doesn’t know that!”

Preece has owned a number of horses over the years and has built up a very good relationship with Evans who is based at Kinnersley, just over the border in Worcestershire.

Evans, a former jockey, has around 20 to 25 horses at his yard and Preece continued: “This is a chance for the smaller owners and trainers. It’s our FA Cup, can we pull off a giantkilling? I doubt it, but let’s have a go!”

At least Preece knows what it's like to have a winner at Cheltenham because back in October 2013, the Evans-trained Trackmate, Preece’s most successful runner so far, won the Pertemps Network Handicap Hurdle Qualifying Race.

He also won at Aintree and Preece, a former pupil at Chosen Hill School, said: “He was a very good horse, a very fast horse. Sadly, he had three strong legs but one glass leg! You could run him only so many times a season.

“He was second favourite for the Pertemps Final in 2014 but he couldn’t run because he injured his leg.”

And while it was obviously disappointing for both Preece and Evans to miss out on the Cheltenham Festival with Trackmate, the pair have struck up a very good relationship over the past 13 years.

“The first horse I had wasn’t very good,” admitted Preece. “I took him to James and he told me he wasn’t really a racehorse, I admired his honesty.”

Preece has had some 15 to 20 winners in National Hunt racing and on the Flat over the years and it was Evans who encouraged him to buy Trackmate.

That worked out very well, of course, but buying National Hunt horses is certainly not cheap.

“The syndicates have made horses that bit more expensive,” admitted Preece. “In the scheme of things, Risk And Roll was competitively priced but more recently I have gone down the route of buying foals and yearlings. I own quite a few Flat horses.”

Preece, who along with school friend Jason Bishop set up The Little Jet Company back in 2014, is interesting to interview. He flies his own planes and back in the day had a five-year spell as commercial manager of Gloucester Rugby Club when the game first turned professional in 1995.

He played rugby locally too. “I played for Cheltenham Civil Service, Gordon League and Old Patesians,” he said. “I also played rugby in America, in South Carolina. I was primarily a hooker but I ended up becoming a utility player. I could cover the front row and the back row and I could play scrum-half, I played all those positions for Pats.”

That’s all very much in the past, of course, although he does retain links with the Pats.

More immediately, he is counting down the hours to tomorrow’s race, a race that will be emotional for Preece in more ways than one.

That’s because Risk And Roll is known at the yard as ‘Treaders’, a name given to the horse by Preece in memory of jockey Liam Treadwell. Treadwell died in June 2020 after taking a mixture of drugs including an animal painkiller and class A substances. At an inquest in February 2021 a coroner recorded a verdict of misadventure.

Treadwell, who rode 100-1 shot Mon Mome to Grand National glory in 2009, was just 34 when he died, and Preece said: “He was a true gent as well as a very good jockey, very well respected. He was one of the top jockeys, he rode winners at the Festival as well as having that National win, he used to ride all my horses.”

Preece admits that a top 10 finish tomorrow would be a good result for Risk And Roll, who likes it good to soft – Tabitha Worsley will be on board – and should he achieve that, it would certainly be a fitting tribute to Liam Treadwell.

It would also be very special for everyone connected to the yard.

“It’s a a great achievement to get the horse to the Cheltenham Festival,” said Preece. “I’d like to thank all the very hard-working, dedicated staff for all their efforts throughout the years.”