Ruby Walsh: Curtain comes down on a truly memorable National Hunt season

Rachael Blackmore onboard Honeysuckle clears the last to win. Picture: INPHO/Morgan Treacy

And so the end the is near for the National Hunt season, only eight races away, but the end also looks in sight for empty soulless racecourses, for owners who can’t get to go and watch their horses compete, and even more so for everyone to just start living again.

I fully understand the privileged position I, my colleagues in the racing press, my former weighroom competitors, and all of those involved in horse racing under rules have been in for the past 10 months by simply being able to travel somewhere and have work to go to.

But I can’t wait for Gillian and the girls to pile into the car and go to a race meeting, enjoy the action and the sounds a crowd make and then stop for dinner on the way home.

Oh, what we once took for granted will soon seem like a treat but, either way, what we witnessed as jumping fans since last July when the National Hunt season resumed is still more than worth remembering.

The 2020/2021 season will forever be the season of Rachael Blackmore and Henry De Bromhead, yet that first line just shows the importance of what happens in the spring. Just like May in soccer and what used to be August in the GAA, the finals and those who triumph are what stick in the memory longest.

Even if Willie Mullins was crowned leading trainer at the Cheltenham Festival, it will be remembered for the exploits of Henry’s horses and Racheal’s riding, and also for the power with which the Irish competitors blew the majority of races and prize money on offer back across the Irish Sea. It was the equivalent of our rugby team winning at Twickenham 19-96.

And to round it off, the Grand Slam was won at Aintree. Magical stuff to watch and a fairy tale for the two who fronted it all, but on the final day of the season the other team that shone on the bigger stages will take all the gongs.

The Closutton juggernaut has been rolling along for 13 years now, and whilst some of the wheels on this powerful machine have changed along the way, the driver is still in his seat and is showing no signs of slowing down either.

The engines were fuelled for the Dublin Racing Festival, and while the Knockeen express passed it out in the UK for a bit in late spring, the wheels have been steadied and it’s steamrolling its way through Punchestown in typical fashion.

WINNERS at the close of play last evening were the icing on the cake of his 15th trainers’ title, which Willie Mullins will receive this afternoon alongside his son Patrick, who will be getting his 12th amateur title.

They are tied together by a co-pilot — one’s wife, the other’s mother — but Jackie Mullins is also more than those things, as she seamlessly ensures the engines are oiled.

Beside them will be a brother-and-sister combo who are also wheels on that juggernaut and will be claiming titles of their own. This week, Paul Townend has shown me the understanding a champion jockey has to have of pain, parking it and the three broken bones in his foot deep in the back of his mind after Rachael Blackmore forced him back into the saddle to defend his crown.

Champions need challengers and she pushed him this year, but Jack Kennedy will join the race next season too to entertain us all.

Paul’s youngest sister, Jody, will stand beside her proud brother on Saturday when she receives the Mary Hyde Cup for being champion lady rider, but I have feeling they will both be joined by the father, Tim, and sister, Caroline, when she picks up that cup, in a brief but deep look skywards as they fondly remember their mother, Jo, who passed away on St Stephen’s Day 2005.

Jody turned eight the following morning and Paul walked into Willie Mullins’ yard six months later. I had no idea who the baby-faced teenage cousin of our then second jockey, Davy Condon, was when he walked into Clossuton. It never even entered my head that he might become the man he is, but each of the Townends have found their way to become all of and more than any parent could hope for.

It will and should be a massively proud day for them and even if we have no idea what goes on behind the pearly gates, Tim Townend can pour himself a glass of something very good Sunday evening because he should feel like the Cheshire Cat.

Thursday saw JP McManus record his 100th Punchestown festival winner and he will claim the Irish owners’ title to go with the UK one he received last Saturday. There won’t ever be a bigger supporter of this sport than him and any success the McManus family have is more than deserved, especially this year as they continue to mourn the loss of Emma.

It is their support that has also helped Simon Torrens become champion conditional. It is seven years since Simon had his first ride and it took him four years to find his first winner, but there is something so admirable about people who don’t give up, and the Torrens family have not been short of tragedy themselves.

Plenty of people standing on that podium Saturday will have someone in the back of their minds who they wish was here, just like so many people all over the country after the year that has just passed. But each of them is showing us, in their own way, what we all have do - to keep on trying.

On the racing front, at 3:20 Saturday in the Coolmore Kew Gardens Irish EBF Mares’ Champion Hurdle, Paul Townend stepped aside in his title bid to give Patrick Mullins an extra push over the line to beat Jamie Codd, and so Patrick takes the ride on Concertista. She faded close home at Cheltenham, when Black Tears got up to beat her, but I think the fitting of a tongue-tie and the flatter track will really help her, and I think she will prove too good for Stormy Ireland, who was a revelation when coming back to Willie Mullins. Burning Victory hasn’t run since she won the 2020 Triumph and it could be difficult for her. Skyace has been brilliant all season but Laurina, I’m afraid, is very easy to oppose.

The 4pm race is the Ballymore Champion Hurdle. Quilixios definitely got the run of the race in the Triumph Hurdle and I think Zanahiyr, who finished fourth that day, will be ridden more aggressively.

But I must say Haut En Couleurs really impressed me in the Triumph, on what was his first start for Willie, and his first since October, when he won in France. I thought he ran really well, and he looks like he has improved at home, so hopefully that will come to the fore on the track and round off a massive week for Willie Mullins.

In the big handicap hurdle, the Baroneracing.com, it’s a huge field and The Shunter will be on many people’s shortlist, but his trainer, Emmet Mullins, also runs Cape Gentleman, and I wouldn’t overlook him too quickly. But the one I like is Power Of Pause, the mount of Brian Hayes. I thought he was travelling really well when he got brought down in a handicap hurdle at Fairyhouse.

The final race of the meeting, at 6:10, is the Buggyman INH Flat Race, and Willie Mullins introduces a newcomer called Willie The Coo. The only slight worry is that he’s a four-year-old taking on older horses, but his work at home has been really good.

Saturday's best bets

Nap: Concertista, 3:20 Punchestown

Next best: Power Of Pause, 5:05 Punchestown