Ruby Walsh: The trainer's boulevard of broken dreams
CALM BEFORE STORM: Henry de Bromhead with Honeysuckle. "For all Henry got right last year, he made one mistake: he didn't run enough horses at Cheltenham," believes Ruby Walsh.
THE key to a jockey's success this week will be inextricably linked to the yard they are riding for. Any rider is only as good as the horse they are riding, but the form of those horses is vital to winning any day, anywhere.
Nicky Henderson and Willie Mullins are the most successful trainers in Festival history. They have developed a canny knack of peaking horses at this stage of the season, but they are not alone here because both Gordon Elliott and Henry De Bromhead have figured it out too.
Henry had the Festivals of Festivals in 2021, but Willie Mullins managed to nab him for the leading trainer award when Galopin Des Champs clinched the curtain-closing Martin Pipe in the gathering gloom of the final day.
They trained six winners each, and Willie won on the placings countback, but neither would have beaten Gordon Elliott if he had not been suspended. Both would have lost a winner, and Gordon would have been the only one to bag six for the meeting.
Denise Foster, who was steering the Cullentra team, had three winners but add Galvin, Sir Gerhard and Quilixios, who had all moved stables, and you see the strength of the squad Gordon had assembled.
Galvin has re-joined the team, and Gordon hit the ground running when he returned to the training ranks last September. His approach to the season differs from Willie's, and his string hit the racecourses six weeks before Willie’s are ready.
They clash at Christmas, but Gordon then backs off a little with his Festival hopefuls in mid-January through early February, whereas Willie tends to run all of his in that period.
Both approaches reap rich rewards, but the phrase ‘out of sight, out of mind’ jumps out at me and can often mean some Elliott runners are under the radar coming to Cheltenham.
From the overpriced Mighty Potter in the Supreme to Mount Ida in the Mrs Paddy Power Mares’ Chase, expect the Cullentra horses to be competitive. On ay one alone, he will have horses in the first five in the betting in every race and will send at least 12 horses onto the track, none of which would be a shock winner.
For all Henry got right last year, he made one mistake: he didn't run enough horses at Cheltenham, such was the form of his yard. Trainers hope their horses run to their ability here, but Henry's have often run career bests at this meeting, and in the last few weeks the evidence is mounting that it could happen again.
He returns this week with the Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase, and Gold Cup crowns to defend. There is little doubt that brings enormous pressure, and the urge to do extra work is one of the temptations trainers must resist. Looking back over diaries, remembering exactly what you did last year and trying to replicate it in the hope you can achieve the same results will be the priority.
Whatever way he looks at it, when Henry de Bromhead loads all his horses on the trucks from Waterford to Gloucester, how Honeysuckle travels will be foremost in his mind. The weather, sailing time delays and traffic are inconveniences we manage, but when you put your year's work into a horsebox and watch it drive out the gate, they all become issues. Ten hours is a good trip, but your hope is it doesn't become 16 or 18.
Fourteen times he has sent Honeysuckle to the races, and 14 times she has delivered for him. But you need to be an irretrievable optimist to believe a day won't come where someone beats her, and the glass-half-full Henry will be aware of that.
His journey will feel long and never-ending because he knows she faces recognisable and fresh opposition. Epatante follows Nicky Henderson’s route to the Cotswolds via Newcastle and Kempton, Teahupoo comes here having won the same trial as Hardy Eustace, while Willie Mullins, with Appreciate It, is trying something no-one else has ever achieved: winning the Champion Hurdle on a horse's seasonal debut.
Willie has form with Quevega, Arctic Fire and Penhill to show he can produce a horse fit and ready to win here on seasonal debut but others have done that too. The Champion Hurdle, though, against a rival of Honeysuckle’s calibre, is a different ball game and if he wins it will put W.P. on an elevated pedestal - one which Henry will hope is beyond his rival.
An army will depart through the Irish ports between Saturday and Monday. It is a logistical nightmare of paperwork, tack, horses, feed, and staff where undoubtedly a horse or two will be forgotten, and one that shouldn't have travelled will do so - from Closutton, primarily.
Nevertheless, all will be well when the dust settles after lunch on Tuesday. Willie will be tipping his trilby and saying “Ah, how are you?”; Henry will repeat “Sure, look, it's great to be here”; and Gordon will tell us “You know yourself.”
They will resort to type in the minutes before the Supreme, seeking space, peace and quiet in a saddling box or inside the weigh room door. As Willie discusses plans with his jockeys, his final words are ones of ease and calm. There won't be a rousing pep talk - his approach is quite the opposite.
Gordon will disappear out onto the track, and Henry will wander about looking for more time on his own.
They, and some of the more prominent English trainers, will have many chances, but others will only have a few - and some only one. The pressure at the top lasts longer, but that doesn't mean it is any less at the bottom.
You could argue it is greater on those with fewer chances as they must hope to hit the target with fewer bullets or maybe even just a single shot. Some trainers will stand back on race day, their job done, having got the horse to the races in the best condition.
Others will get deeply involved and issue furlong-by-furlong instructions to their jockeys as they fret over what they can no longer control. But there will only be 28 winners and a hell of a lot of losers.
Disappointed trainers standing in the back paddock at Cheltenham is a common sight, binoculars dangling, cheeks puffing, looking puzzled and gutted as they listen to whatever excuse their jockey gives before they depart and leave the trainer with an equally disappointed owner, their dream of Cheltenham glory shattered.
It's in stark contrast to the scenes in the winner's enclosure, between the parade ring and saddling boxes after every race. There should be a trauma room for dejected trainers somewhere in that racecourse area, where they can go and rationalise what has happened before they face the world again.
Some big guns will blow out. Some always do, like Chacun Pour Soi last year, and Defi Du Seuil, Tiger Roll and Paisley Park 12 months earlier. Some will fall, just as Envoi Allen, Benie Des Dieux, Annie Power, amongst others, did.
The ups and downs and the thoughts that will consume trainers long after each day's racing ends will end up on the same boulevard of broken dreams. Jockeys will head home after the last, while trainers will head for their horses, looking at them, wanting them to explain why they underperformed.
Or maybe just patting them to say thanks.
