EVER notice how the vast majority of those outraged at this time of year by the possibility of connections eschewing a traditional championship race at Cheltenham for one of the newbies never owned a top-class racehorse?
At any level, owners prefer to win a race than just be part of an occasion. Sure, when talking about Apple’s Jade 12 months ago, or Honeysuckle now, it is in the context of them being leading contenders in any of their potential targets – the Champion or Mares’ Hurdles.
But if you were Kenny Alexander, owner of last Saturday’s Irish Champion Hurdle heroine and a man who has never experienced the ultimate thrill of leading a victor in at Prestbury Park, would finishing third in one contest that you had to supplement her for, regardless of its status, trump triumph in another?
It is ironic how the narrative in the wake of last week’s success included a lukewarm reaction to its workmanlike nature over novice Darver Star, and the hope that Honeysuckle would still take in the two-mile challenge next month.
Sometimes you wonder if there is a bit of deception going on, such as when Rich Ricci suggesting his Benie Des Dieux might have a crack at the Champion Hurdle.
As someone who has long been fond of a high-stakes poker, you know that Alexander is comfortable with the bluff and counter-bluff. Who has the best hand though?
Anyhow, no decision has been made on Honeysuckle, although earlier this week, Alexander’s racing manager Peter Molony reiterated the consistent message of trainer Henry de Bromhead that the Mares’ Hurdle remained the likelier destination due to her preference for two and a half miles.
Alexander admits that how events unfolded have given him food for thought. He is conflicted and has changed tack a few times. What is best for Honeysuckle will determine the final call.
The Alexander-owned Carrie Des Champs and Jack Kennedy jump the last to win the Hotel Minella Mares Maiden Hurdle in Tipperary \ Healy Racing
Jumped better
“The dilemma… I don’t think there is any need to make a decision now. What Rachael (Blackmore) said afterwards, she might prefer a further trip. But they go such a gallop in a Champion Hurdle and there is a hill.
“This time last week I was saying if she won it was 80-20 she would go to a Champion Hurdle. Now I would say probably 50-50. We will wait and see. This time last year she was 11/4 to win the Mares’ Novice and didn’t even go to post (due to a slight injury setback).
“There is a long way to go. But I will probably make my mind closer to the time. Whatever race she goes to she will have her chance.”
He has become very aware of how the racing public in Ireland have latched onto the six-year-old daughter of Sulamani.
“These racemares are always incredibly popular. Annie Power, Apple’s Jade, Vroum Vroum Mag, Benie Des Dieux.
“Honeysuckle is very, very popular and it is fantastic. The reception she got on Saturday was fantastic and I would imagine the Rachael Blackmore factor is huge. She is incredible. She has got something like an 80% strike rate for me. It’s phenomenal. She has come from absolutely nowhere and she is riding the crest of a wave and she thoroughly deserves it. She is an inspiration to anyone. It doesn’t have to be racing. Just look at what she has achieved. People should use her as a great example.
“Then you’ve Henry. There is Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott and Henry is seen as an underdog against them two. People like that.”
Alexander has been in thrall to racing since his father brought him to the local Ayr track as a 13-year-old.
Now that the former chartered accountant has the means to, as the chief executive who transformed GVC Holdings from a bit-part player worth just €26 million and employing seven people, to a global superpower in the sports betting and gaming industry that has 3,000 workers, a market cap of €5.5 billion and a FTSE 100 listing, he delights in having his colours operating on both sides of the Irish Sea.
Rachael Blackmore and Peter Molony after Honeysuckle had won The PCI Irish Champion Hurdle \ Carolinenorris.ie
Breeding operation
The 50-year-old Scot has gone deeper than that though. Carrie Des Champs and fellow six-year-old Blazing Emily have done enough to suggest that his desire to build a strong breeding operation is something he is very serious about, and quite good at. It explains why almost all his runners are mares.
“Honeysuckle is undoubtedly the best. I have had a few others who have been good. I have had a few howlers. But I have had a fair amount of success and I am enjoying it.
“Carrie Des Champs won six with Gordon Elliot and he did amazingly placing her. She was no world-beater but somehow managed to win six and to get blacktype was pretty impressive.
“It was good to see her winning three times at Perth because that is where I live actually. It is just around the corner. Gordon is a genius. She got injured and we are going to stud.
“Blazing Emily, who is with Willie Mullins, is out of Blazing Tempo which I bought when she retired (after scoring 10 times, including in the Galway Plate and four graded contests). She has won a couple. She is decent as well.
“I only bred from good ones. Blazing Tempo was the second highest-rated mare in Ireland when Quevega was around. Probably the second highest in Ireland and the UK. Sadly we don’t have her anymore, but we have got a couple more from her. Carrie Des Champs was out of a mare (the five-time victor Asturienne) I bought in 2011.
“It’s a long road but I don’t mind. I have had some success. I quite enjoy it actually. I race them and see how they go. Some of the mares I have got running for me now I will breed from and some of the duffers I probably won’t.”
Elfile is another with Mullins. The daughter of Saint Des Saints won a listed mares’ novice hurdle at Punchestown last May, having given way only to Honeysuckle in a Fairyhouse Grade 1 and finished a close-up sixth in the Mares’ Novice Hurdle at Cheltenham before that. She may take her chance in the Mares’ Hurdle.
The majority of Alexander’s charges in Ireland are in de Bromhead’s care however. The best of the rest, after Honeysuckle, is Minella Melody, a recent Grade 3 victor at Fairyhouse who is a leading fancy for the Mares’ Novice Hurdle.
“I bought her just after she won her point-to-point. She won it very, very easily. She cost a few quid, I have to say! Then she won her bumper very, very impressively. Then she went to Aintree for that listed mare’s bumper. She was second, she ran a blinder. She went to Punchestown at the Festival there and finished third, probably the ground was a bit quick.
“It was always going to be jumping for her. Since she has gone to jumping she has ran three and won three. The second one she probably wasn’t as impressive, she still won. Then the last time in that graded race was good.
“She is not going to be as flashy as Honeysuckle. She does what she needs to do. Hopefully there is more in the tank. I think she will go to the Mares’ Novice. I look at the betting over the weekend, it is super, super competitive. It is probably going to be wide open but she looks to have a chance.”
To have two of such quality individuals that will be highly touted if they line up at Cheltenham is ‘pinch me’ territory.
Honeysuckle winning her point-to-point with Mark O'Hare in Dromahane / Healy Racing
Just a sport
“It is amazing. I get a bit nervous. I do get nervous. If you don’t get nervous watching these horses there is not much point being in it. I keep it in perspective. It’s not war, it’s just a sport and a bit of fun. If they don’t win or run well, life goes on. It is great to have those two.
“I might even have Elfile, who has come in under the radar a little bit. She won at Punchestown, she came second in the (Fairyhouse) Mares’ Novice last year. She came second to Stormy Ireland (at Christmas). I don’t know if she is going to go over to Cheltenham. But she wouldn’t disgrace herself.
“I spent years watching racing and going to the Festival, and Punchestown a few times. I’m watching racing all the time. You dream of owning just one really, really good horse. Thankfully now I have got a few. Honeysuckle is the star one.”
Alexander has a handful in training with Lucinda Russell, David Pipe and Nick Williams in Britain but there are a few reasons why he has increased his presence on our shores in the last couple of seasons.
“I got Peter Molony involved and he looks after all the horses. He said to me a few years ago if you are going to be paying good money you need to spread it about and have the horses with the best trainers.
“Obviously these three guys (Mullins, Elliott and de Bromhead) are, if not the best, they are close to it. One of them probably is the best. They are exceptional.
“Also the opportunity for mares in Ireland, it is better. There are more opportunities. And the prize money is better. To be fair, a lot of mine have been running in good quality events. But the prize money has been good. I can’t complain about Saturday’s pot, €110,000 or something like that?”
It was €112,000 and brought his tally in Ireland to €321,318 from 11 winners. Compared to last season’s €234,688 from 11 triumphs, it is evident that fortunes are improving, with all the major festivals both here and in Britain still to come.
It hasn’t all been a hack canter however. The death of the potentially high-class Sinoria in Cork after a fall at the penultimate fence in a Grade 3 mares’ novice chase last November was devastating.
“That was just horrible. I was watching it and I knew immediately. You could see, and then you see Rachael’s reaction. She was very, very good. She was very, very well-bred as well, a half-sister to Minella Rocco. I bought her at Cheltenham sales a couple of years back. Henry and Rachael knew her best and Henry thought she was exceptional. But we will never know.
“That is why I was saying to get beat is not the end of the world. That was the worst of the worst in horse racing. Hopefully I don’t have many more like it. It is part of the game I guess but it was horrible.”
After stints as an accountant at Grant Thornton and as financial controller of a meat-packing firm, Alexander’s love of gambling, at the track and in the casinos, led him to apply for the vacancy as Sportingbet’s finance director in 2000.
He got the job and progressed to be MD of European operations. Seven years later he was appointed GVC’s chief executive and his impact has been stunning, overseeing takeovers of Sportingbet (jointly with William Hill), Bwin and Ladbrokes Coral among others.
Negative publicity
There has been plenty of negative publicity for bookmakers and the gambling industry in recent years, with a review of Britain’s gambling laws ongoing and suggestions during the past few weeks of general election campaigning in Ireland that something similar might happen here.
Alexander acknowledges the scourge of problem gambling and its destructive effect and pledges to meet the issue head on.
“We are not flavour of the month, bookmakers, the betting industry. Some of it is unjustified. Some of it is justified. The bottom line is you come to bet, I bet, most people bet and it is fine and it is a bit of fun. It adds to the thrill of watching sport. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it.
“You can underestimate, for other people, how the gambling product is very dangerous. It can destroy their lives and their families. In some cases it can finish their lives. We do have to take this whole area of problem gambling seriously. We have made decent strides in the last couple of years. There is much more we can do and there is much more the industry can do. There is much more the industry will do.
“It is really to make sure people are educated about gambling. That it is under control and also to make sure that people bet within their means. That we do everything we can to make sure that can happen. When people lose their bet, that they are not losing their houses, they can’t see their kids and all that.
“I think the industry is getting sorted out, there is less problem gamblers, people can enjoy their gambling again and the negative PR will stop, we will get less bad headlines. There will be a few more bad headlines in the coming weeks and months, and years possibly, before we get to that situation.
“You have to engage and be proactive. You need to understand the problem more. Work with the racing industry and get it sorted out. That is my strategy anyway.”
For the next few weeks though, the focus will be on turning all possible factors in his mind before making a call on the Honeysuckle destination. And given she didn’t make the trip last year, on hoping de Bromhead’s number doesn’t come up on his phone.
“It’s like a game of poker. What I should really announce is… I don’t know, I don’t want to think of the tactics of it. Whether it’s to try get Willie Mullins to send Benie Des Dieux to the Stayers’?! Willie will probably change his mind anyway. We don’t need to make our mind up yet.
“I have to say, even a couple of months ago, I was sort of changing my mind. I was saying, ‘I don’t really care. I never had winner at the Festival. I will go for the softer target’, and that would have been the mares’ race but I do think what began to change my mind, was if she wins (at Leopardstown) she probably deserves to go for the Champion Hurdle, it’s more prestigious.
“I don’t know what is the easier race this year. Benie Des Dieux is pretty special. I am 50-50 now. I can’t give you any exclusive!
“It’s try and get her over to Cheltenham this time. And hopefully Rachael can punch up the hill. I have 100% confidence in both of them no matter what race they go to. Let’s see if we can get there first though.”