Ruby Walsh: Title hopes fade but Honeysuckle can give Rachael Blackmore compensation

Honeysuckle has undoubtedly been the shining star in the hurdling division this season, winning three Grade 1s from three runs, each performance better than the one before.

Rachael Blackmore is unseated from Captain Guiness in the Ryanair Novice Chase trophy. Picture: Brian Lawless

Henry De Bromhead hinted, in the aftermath of Minella Times’s Randox Aintree Grand National success, that perhaps Lady Luck was starting to desert him, and I think he and Rachael Blackmore could be feeling the very same way this morning.

Low Lie The Fields, at 18-1, was second in the first race on Wednesday, Henry’s closest finish on the first two days of racing at Punchestown. Rachael finished second on Allaho, behind Chacun Pour Soi on Tuesday, her closest finish over the first two days too. And their closest finishing position together was with Decimation on Wednesday evening when he finished a remote third to Lifetime Ambition.