Cheltenham Racing Festival – what a week to be Irish!
By Mick Byrne
It was a week of National Hunt brilliance. Great racing, some marvellous finishes, records equalled, records broken and a brilliant final score of Ireland 23, England 5 (and we won’t mention the rugby result!).
If this was a football match we would have been tempted to leave at half-time, such was the Irish dominance at the Cheltenham Racing Festival over four days last week.
Then Irish trainers enjoyed success throughout the festival but it was the achievement of Rachael Blackmore that will long live in the memory.
History was made when the first female jockey was crowned champion jockey at the festival, winding up with a total of six winners for the week – including her marvellous victory on Honeysuckle in the Champion Hurdle.
This was some achievement for a young lady from Tipperary in what is normally a male-dominated sport, and she is already being touted as Irish sports star for 2021 – and we are only in March,
Rachael is only the second jockey to ride six winners at a festival meeting. Ruby Walsh is the only other jockey to achieve that, having ridden seven twice, and no other jockey has ever beaten five.
As for my own luck, unfortunately I had more losers than winners. However, my nap of the week, Flooring Porter, duly obliged at 12/1.
What with the lockdown and the bookies and pubs closed, there were no celebrations or craic but it is all about health and safety in these trying times and I have no doubt there will be plenty of time to celebrate when we see the back of this dreaded pandemic.
Overall it was a great meeting and we look forward to an even greater 2022 Cheltenham, when the crowds will hopefully be back and the Irish try to break the record of 23 winners.
In what was lovely touch by the Irish trainers, owners and stable staff, they presented a cheque to a charity for the hospitality shown to them in Cheltenham.
One has to congratulate Willie Mullins on his result at the festival, where he had six winners, and also the Waterford trainer Henry de Bromhead on being the first man to train the winners of the Champion Hurdle, Champions Chase and Gold Cup in the one year.
There was also great success from a Mayo point of view, starting on the opening day when Appreciate It, owned by Achill man Michael Masterson, won the first race, and continuing with the big outsider of the meeting, Jeff Kidder at 80/1, co-owned by Breaffy man Albert Dravins and Eamon Scanlon (and no, I wasn’t on it!).
On Friday we had Minella Indo winning the Gold Cup, a horse is owned by the Maloney brothers from Ballina, who own Mount Falcon Hotel. Their dad, the late John Maloney, is a native of Kiltimagh, while the Maloney family also have strong Balla connections.
To even have a horse running in Cheltenham is an honour and Robert Hennelly was represented by Moyhenna, while Chatham Street Lad, trained by Michael Winters, is owned by the Healy family from Moygownagh, who are involved in the hotel business.
To top off a great week, local syndicate The Westerners watched their horse Cyrus Dallin win the big race at Punchestown at odds of 14/1 on Sunday – and no, I wasn’t on that either!