Cheltenham Festival 2023 Irish racing reflections including more Willie Mullins milestones

1. A week that had it all

It was a week that had it all, from start to finish. From Marine Nationale’s win in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, a first Cheltenham Festival win for Barry Connell as a trainer, if not as an owner, a first for Michael O’Sullivan as a jockey, and we didn’t know that the young rider would have his second just over three hours later. All the way to Iroko in the Martin Pipe Hurdle, a first Festival win for trainers Oliver Greenall and Josh Guerriero, although Oliver Greenall had been in that winner’s enclosure before when he rode Amecelli to victory in the Foxhunter in 2008. A first too for rider Aidan Kelly, another rung on the ladder of a fine season.

And everything in between.

It was a week that had depth and intrigue, and brilliance and stories and near-misses and vindication and daring and fairytale endings. One of the best ever, by common consensus.

2. More Mullins milestones

Willie Mullins dominated again, leading trainer for the 10th time. El Fabiolo and Gaillard Du Mesnil and Impaire Et Passe and Energumene and Lossiemouth and Galopin Des Champs. Five Grade 1s and a Grade 2, the Champion Chase and the Gold Cup among them, and runner-up in the Champion Hurdle. The five Grade 1 winners ridden by Paul Townend, whose talent, whose big game mentality, was, as has been well documented, particularly in evidence on Galopin Des Champs in the biggest race of them all. A top-class winner of a top-class Gold Cup. The Grade 2 winner, the National Hunt Chase winner, galvanised by Patrick Mullins to hit the front on the run-in.

The champion trainer was leading trainer this time with six, not with 10. But there was depth too, he had seven seconds and eight thirds, and his six winners took his all-time tally for the Cheltenham Festival to an unprecedented 94, just six shy of the century. That’s fairly remarkable. Six winners next year, please God, would do it, and it would be fairly special if his sixth winner at next year’s Festival was in the Gold Cup, first run in 1924, a hundred years old next year.

3. Leading Irish trainers to the fore

Henry de Bromhead and Gordon Elliott both had weeks to remember. There was that extraordinary day on Tuesday, Honeysuckle day, with all the emotion, when the depth and the warmth of public sentiment was palpable. If there was ever an occasion on which the will of the people influenced the result of a horse race, then it was on Tuesday, when Honeysuckle and Rachael Blackmore galloped up the Cheltenham hill one final time, a special final act, and returned to that incredible ovation.

The following day Maskada ran out an impressive winner of the Grand Annual, and the day after that Envoi Allen showed his class in the Ryanair Chase, produced at concert pitch by his trainer. Three winners for Henry de Bromhead, two Grade 1s and a Grade 3 handicap, which took his overall tally to 21.

Gordon Elliott’s three took his overall tally to 37, and took him three ahead of his former mentor Martin Pipe and into fifth place in the all-time list on his own, with Fulke Walwyn’s 40 now firmly in his sights.

Jazzy Matty in the Boodles and Delta Work again in the Cross-Country, a 1-2 in the race with Galvin only giving best late on. A 1-2 in the Stayers’ Hurdle too, a first Stayers’ Hurdle for the trainer, with Teahupoo promoted to second place behind the redoubtable Sire Du Berlais, now a three-time Cheltenham Festival winner.

Gordon Elliott hit the crossbar a few times as well: Gerri Colombe went down by a short head in the Brown Advisory Chase, Pied Piper went down by a head in the County Hurdle, Chemical Energy was second, Salvador Ziggy was second, Conflated ran a massive race in the Gold Cup. It was a very good week for Gordon Elliott but, if the ball had hopped a little more kindly for him, it could have been even better.

4. Strength in-depth

There was depth to the Irish challenge too, as well as width, with the 18 Irish-trained winners supplied by nine different Irish-based trainers. That was three more individual winning Irish trainers than last year, when there were also 18 Irish winners, and only one less than 2021, when there were 23. Interestingly, in 2020, there were 17 Irish-trained winners, but only four successful Irish trainers, with It Came To Pass’ win in the Foxhunter putting Eugene O’Sullivan on the scoresheet along with Mullins, Elliott and de Bromhead.

It was good to see Tony Martin back in the winner’s enclosure at Cheltenham, after Good Time Jonny overcame a poor run through the race to win the Pertemps Final, a first Festival winner for Galway Hurdle-winning jockey Liam McKenna. And it was good to see Colm Murphy back there too, after Impervious won the Mares’ Chase under Brian Hayes, another rider who was breaking his Festival duck. Colm Murphy had taken time away from training since his previous Festival winner, Empire Of Dirt in the Plate in 2016, but, trainer of Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and Champion Hurdle winner Brave Inca and of Champion Chase winner Big Zeb, he is back zinging again now, and he has another top class performer on his hands in Impervious.

Martin Brassil didn’t hit the bullseye, but he peppered the target. Two runners, Fastorslow beaten a neck in the Ultima, An Epic Song beaten a head in the Coral Cup. (Then Longhouse Poet won at Down Royal on Friday, on track for Aintree.)

There was Barry Connell and Michael O’Sullivan with Marine Nationale, while Sam Curling and Pa King had their first Festival winners when Angels Dawn won the Kim Muir, and John McConnell and Ben Harvey had their firsts with Seddon in the Magners Plate, two days after the John McConnell-trained Mahler Mission had fallen at the second last fence when in front in the National Hunt Chase. And A Dream To Share won the Champion Bumper.

5. Dream stuff

A Drew To Share was a first Cheltenham Festival winner for trainer John Kiely, 85-year-old John Kiely, one of racing’s true gentlemen, and he only stopped riding out a short time ago. And it was a first Cheltenham Festival winner for 18-year-old jockey John Gleeson. A 67-year gap between trainer and rider. The harmonisation of the generations.

Bred by the rider’s parents Brian and Claire, A Dream To Share had won his first three bumpers, two during the summer, at Tipperary and Roscommon respectively, before he went to Leopardstown’s Dublin Racing Festival and won the Grade 2 bumper there, the race that had provided two winners and two runners-up in the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham in its previous four renewals.

JP McManus bought the Muhaarar gelding after Leopardstown. He could have changed the rider, but he didn’t. It was a great call by the owner, not uncharacteristic it has to be said, to leave the Leaving Cert student on board, to trust him in the white-hot heat of a Champion Bumper, an amateur rider who only had his first ride on the racecourse in March 2021, against Paul Townend and Rachael Blackmore and Harry Cobden and Danny Mullins. John Gleeson was superbly patient on a horse that he knows intimately, repaid his new owner’s faith in spades.

6. The future

It’s always interesting to project forward in Cheltenham’s immediate aftermath, think about what shape next year’s Cheltenham Festival might take, all going well. Of course, a lot depends on what the brilliant Champion Hurdle winner Constitution Hill will do. Nicky Henderson’s horse could stay over hurdles, try to line up three of them, like Hatton’s Grace and Sir Ken and Persian War and Istabraq. And See You Then, whose career through the mid-1980s was masterminded by Constitution Hill’s trainer. No trainer has trained two triple Champion Hurdlers.

Or win four. No horse has ever won four.

There is the going-chasing option, obviously, and a Gold Cup appears to be the dream of Constitution Hill’s owner Michael Buckley. You can see the attraction, the lure of history. Dawn Run still stands alone as a Champion Hurdle/Gold Cup winner. History calls, and you feel that Constitution Hill could do anything.

The bookmakers are taking no chances, as evidenced by best odds of 5/6 for the Champion Hurdle and 7/2 for the Arkle and 10/1 for the Brown Advisory Chase and 12/1 for the Champion Chase and 7/1 for the Turners. And 25/1 for the Gold Cup, the 2024 Gold Cup, not the 2025 Gold Cup, and as short as 10/1 in places. If you have proportionate stakes on the Blue Bresil gelding to win all six races, you will lose 9% of your total stake if he does win one of them. That’s how defensive the layers are being. If he doesn’t, of course, you will lose 100%.

If Constitution Hill does go chasing, Marine Nationale might stay over hurdles, Impaire Et Passe might stay over hurdles. State Man would be there too, maybe Lossiemouth, maybe Facile Vega and Diverge, and Vauban would be a year older. It could be an intriguing Champion Hurdle.

And Gerri Colombe could morph into a Gold Cup contender and El Fabiolo could be a big player in the Champion Chase, a challenger to his stable companion Energumene’s hat-trick bid. A Dream To Share could be a hugely exciting novice hurdler. That’s all for next year though, and it will have to be some year if it’s going to match this one.

www.donnmcclean.com

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