Over the last few years, the Irish have dominated the Cheltenham Festival. You only have to look at last year’s proceedings to see the dominance of Henry de Bromhead and Willie Mullins, who each took six winners away from a memorable four days, including an impressive treble. While Jack Kennedy was responsible for the Gold Cup success aboard Minella Indo, it was Irishwoman Rachael Blackmore who captured the Top Jockey award last year, with six wins herself.
Although the Gold Cup may have eluded her with A Plus Tard, Blackmore still enjoyed a Festival that will go down in the history books, one in which she won the Champion Hurdle with the unbeaten Honeysuckle, the Ryanair Chase and Supreme Novices’ Hurdle amongst others. The achievement earned her the title of ‘Queen of Cheltenham’ in 96 hours she’ll never forget.
“If I think of myself five or six years ago it is an unbelievable position to be in,” she said. “Just getting a ride at Cheltenham was a massive deal at one stage and then you go and you have 16 or 17 rides after things snowballed.”
With Cheltenham back on the horizon, let’s take a look at Blackmore’s biggest challenges this year as she embarks on a mission of retaining her crown.
Honeysuckle – Champion Hurdle
At this point, it’s almost repetitive talking about how good Honeysuckle is. Having maintained a 100% record even since her victory at Cheltenham last year with Blackmore aboard, the eight-year-old is the clear favourite to win the Champion Hurdle again according to the Cheltenham odds.
A great performance at Leopardstown in the Irish Champion Hurdle would have been a great confidence boost and with such great preparation, it’s hard to look past De Bromhead and co. Blackmore clearly enjoys riding Honeysuckle and was complimentary about the unbeaten mare in the reaction to that success at the Dublin Festival.
“Honeysuckle is just a special mare – she is above and beyond anything else, she has a massive will to win,” she said. “She is very versatile in a lot of different areas and to be able to adapt as she does to different situations, different races and different tactics makes her a dream to ride. Henry and everyone in the yard do a fantastic job with her.”
Envoi Allen – Champion Chase
While the battle between Shishkin and Energumene has dominated the headlines as far as this year’s Champion Chase is concerned, it could perhaps prove to be a blessing in disguise for Blackmore. The classic between Paul Henderson and Willie Mullins back at Ascot has set this race up as one for the ages, but given how unpredictable Cheltenham is, it could provide Envoi Allen with a chance to snatch a surprise win.
That isn’t to say the eight-year-old is a complete outsider. After coming back from a difficult run in the John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase he won at Leopardstown just before the turn of the new year, and despite falling with Jack Kennedy aboard in the Golden Miller last Cheltenham, Blackmore will hoping to do better in the saddle this year.
A Plus Tard – Gold Cup
Hopefully it’s a shot at redemption this time around as far as Blackmore is concerned. While a win for stablemate Minella Indo was great from a County Waterford perspective, you feel like the Gold Cup was the one that got away for Blackmore last time around, and she’ll be desperate not to let another opportunity like that slip away from her.
The eight-year-old has only raced twice since then, but a victory at Haydock in the Lancashire Chase will certainly do no harm in what promises to be a competitive race. There are several previous Grade One winners all vying for that first-place position including the likes of Galvin and Al Boum Photo, but given Cheltenham’s unpredictability, anything is possible.
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