Cheltenham Festival Focus

Irish billionaire John Patrick McManus, almost invariably known in racing circles as ‘J.P.’, is far and away the most successful owner in the history of the Cheltenham Festival. McManus will always be indebted to his first Festival winner, Mister Donovan, who he later reflected, ‘…got me out of all sorts of trouble’, in what is now the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle in 1982. However, McManus’ famous green and gold hooped silks have since been carried into the winners’ enclosure at Prestbury Park during the March showpiece a total of 67 times.

Of the four main ‘championship’ races run at the Festival, McManus has won the Champion Hurdle a record nine times, the Stayers’ Hurdle three times and the Cheltenham Gold Cup once. Undoubtedly, McManus’ best horse, so far, was Istrabraq, who won the Champion Hurdle three years running in 1998, 1999 and 2000 and, with a Timeform Annual Rating of 180, remains the second highest-rated hurdler, behind only Night Nurse, since the early Sixties.

The Queen Mother Champion Chase, in which McManus finished second with Flagship Uberalles in 2004 and Fota Island in 2006, but has never won, remains one of the few races in which he has yet to triumph. Indeed, he looked to have as genuine a chance as ever in 2020, when his Defi Du Seuil was sent off 2/5 for the two-mile chasing championship, but ran inexplicably badly, trailing in a well-beaten fourth of five.

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.