When compared with other leading trainers at the Cheltenham Festival, such as Willie Mullins, Nicky Henderson and Paul Nicholls, Henry de Bromhead, who is based in Knockeen, Co. Waterford, is very much the ‘new kid on the block’. That said, he did saddle his first Festival winner, Sizing Europe, in the Arkle Challenge Trophy in 2010, but he has since increased his winning tally to 15, including 13 at Grade One level.
Sizing Europe followed up in the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 2011, but it wasn’t until 2017, when Special Tiara won the same race for the yard, that de Bromhead really started to emerge as a force majeure at the Cheltenham Festival. In 2018, he won the Ryanair Chase with Balko Des Flos, in 2019, the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle with Minella Indo and, in 2020, added two more Grade One winners to his tally, courtesy of Put The Kettle On in the Arkle Challenge Trophy and Honeysuckle in the Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle.
Even so, the best was yet to come for de Bromhead. At the 2021 Cheltenham Festival, he not only saddled six winners, five of them at Grade One level, but also became one of the few trainers to complete the Champion Hurdle – Cheltenham Gold Cup double, courtesy of Honeysuckle and Minella Indo. In fact, he saddled the same number of winners as leading trainer Willie Mullins and although beaten, fairly comprehensively, on countback, did have the satisfaction of seeing his stable jockey, Rachael Blackmore, make history by becoming the first female jockey to win the leading jockey award.
