FOR the third year in a row, Rachael Blackmore claimed a HRI award, and made it back-to-back wins of the National Hunt category.

Blackmore’s unbeaten association with Honeysuckle peaked this year with three more Grade 1 wins, while the current jockeys’ championship leader also recorded top-level success in the time frame for the award on Notebook and A Plus Tard.

“I’ve had some fantastic days,” Blackmore said. “Obviously none of it would have happened without the backing of Henry de Bromhead and his team down in Knockeen so a massive thanks to them.”

Colin Keane also claimed his second Flat Award after he was crowned champion flat jockey for a second time and recorded double classic success on board Siskin and Even So, in the Irish 2000 Guineas and Irish Oaks respectively, for his boss Ger Lyons.

The Meath man rounded off his Irish season with a brilliant win on Champers Elysees in the Matron Stakes before becoming the super-sub on Tarnawa for her win at the Breeders’ Cup.

“It’s a year we’ll remember for a very long time,” Keane said. “We kind of wrote of the championship when we had to sacrifice two weeks (quarantining after travelling to Goodwood) but thankfully when we came back, the winners came one after the other.

“The last couple of months of the season, we had a lot of winners. My agent did a very good job for me and the boss as well. I wouldn’t be here were it not for either of them so I’m very grateful.”

Also making it back-to-back wins was Colin Bowe, who took the Point-to-Point Award again. Colin won his eighth leading point-to-point handler award last season and three horses – Envoi Allen, Samcro and Ferny Hollow – that he brought up through the ranks triumphed at the Cheltenham Festival in March.

The Horse of the Year Award went to Al Boum Photo, who was deemed best in a category that included Magical, Honeysuckle, Love and Envoi Allen.

Willie Mullins trained the eight-year-old to win back-to-back Gold Cups at Cheltenham in March, only the seventh horse to do so and the first since Best Mate’s sequence of three wins at the beginning of the millennium.