YET again 2020 was a year in which Henry de Bromhead and Rachael Blackmore excelled, with this dynamic pairing best exemplified through the exploits of the still unbeaten mare Honeysuckle.
The day before Faugheen lit up Leopardstown, this trio held sway on day one of the Dublin Racing Festival when landing the PCI Irish Champion Hurdle. This enthralling success over Darver Star fuelled talk of a Champion Hurdle bid but instead Honeysuckle went down the route of the Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle at Cheltenham.
In one of the most fascinating, tactical and intriguing of all the races over the four days, Honeysuckle got home by half a length from Benie Des Dieux. A rematch with the latter, which will surely come later this season, is eagerly awaited. Honeysuckle recently proved her wellbeing by making it back-to-back wins in last month’s Hatton’s Grace Hurdle.
For de Bromhead there was further cheer on the opening day of Cheltenham when Put The Kettle On shocked a host of better-fancied rivals to spring a 16/1 surprise in the Arkle.
After spending a summer winning at the likes of Kilbeggan, Downpatrick, Tipperary and Wexford, an Arkle success represented quite a climax for this remarkably progressive mare.
As we look to the future both Henry de Bromhead and Rachael Blackmore could have quite a say when it comes to this year’s Cheltenham Gold Cup as Minella Indo is shaping up to be one of the foremost contenders for that race.
His wins at Wexford and Navan in recent months are light years removed from the sort of examination presented by the Gold Cup, but the lingering feeling is that this gelding has what it takes to play a major role in the outcome of chasing’s holy grail and he looks tailor-made for the task at hand as we look forward to next March.
NATIONAL Hunt racing has become the preserve of various powerhouse stables and owners over the last decade and there has been a marked shift away from the time when smaller stables could strike blow on the biggest stages of all.
However, the opportunities for smaller yards do still exist as evidenced by the 66/1 triumph of It Came To Pass in the Foxhunters at Cheltenham.
Some 29 years after the O’Sullivan family bagged a famous win with Lovely Citizen – at a time when Irish winners at Cheltenham were restricted to just one or two a year – they struck again with this unconsidered outsider who was trained to perfection by Eugene O’Sullivan and received a fabulous ride from his daughter Maxine.
Afterwards the winning rider reflected that “things like this don’t happen to us”, but sometimes they actually do and the sport is all the better for such results. They also won the HRI National Hunt Special Achivement Award.
More recently, it is impossible to overstate Shark Hanlon’s achievements with Skyace. A mere £600 purchase 13 months ago, she has won four times and accumulated close to €50,000 in prize money.
Two of those wins have come in blacktype races, with the Westerner mare showing that her 66/1 Grade 3 triumph at Down Royal in October was no fluke when backing up to win a listed event at Punchestown earlier this month at 28/1. Quite conceivably she could yet have more to offer and her efforts over the last few months are nothing short of fairytale stuff.
Meanwhile, Michael Winters provided one of the moments of the year when his Chatham Street Lad absolutely hosed up in the Caspian Caviar Gold Cup at Cheltenham earlier this month. The wily Winters also has a huge talent on his hands in the exciting mare Sayce Gold who is unbeaten in three runs on the track.
Lastly, it has been heartening to see Arthur Moore get back amongst the winners recently and with a few nice types too.
His Crossed My Mind could yet challenge for a top handicap chase before the end of the season, while the very promising novice Sea Ducor has what it takes to make his presence felt in a big prize or two over the coming months.