Cheltenham Festival - Good week, bad week: Ireland as good at horse racing as New Zealand are at rugby

Rachael Blackmore on Quilixios celebrates after winning. Picture: INPHO/Dan Abraham

Good week

Irish Horse Racing

Now that the tents have been folded and the strangest ever Cheltenham Festival is behind us, the following sentence should be learned off by heart and repeated out loud, as often and in as many places as possible. “Ireland is as good at horse racing as New Zealand are at rugby union, as America is at baseball or as Cuba in amateur boxing.”

And if you hear any complaints that the state budget allocation of €77m is squandered, explain confidently how that sum is multiplied back into the economy many times over.

National Hunt racing, along with hurling and Irish dancing is a proud cultural differentiator for the nation.

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Maybe the sport should develop its own ‘HAKA’ equivalent to draw more eyes to its unique excellence.

Anybody for Riverdance in front of the stands before they go down to the start of the Supreme Novices next year?

A line of dancing jockeys with Rachael Blackmore and Henry De Bromhead out front.

Henry De Bromhead

Four years ago, De Bromhead watched on ruefully as a horse he’d recently trained, Sizing John, won the Gold Cup for Jessica Harrington.

Nobody more than he could have understood the pain of Gordon Elliot as Sir Gerhard, Galvin and Quilixios won at the festival for newly selected trainers.

But that was then, this is now. Six winners this week, including the three big ones, and a 1-2 in the Gold Cup for the popular Waterford trainer was a unique achievement.

Gordon Elliott

When it first dawned on Gordon Elliott that he had stepped into something unpleasant with that photograph the situation was probably made even worse for him because of the proximity to the Cheltenham.

Two weeks on and the festival may turn out to have been a blessing in disguise.

The glare of the spotlight and the focus of social media moved on and he was left to serve his time unbothered.

It may even have helped that there seemed to be a policy among the broadcasters only to utter his name if it was absolutely necessary and then just hold your nose and spit it out quickly.

The peace and quiet of cancellation must have felt nice for at least a little while.

Denise Foster

Gordon Elliott’s ship was being steered from her home in Co Meath by Denise Foster, who unlike the doctor of the same name didn’t set foot in Gloucester this week.

‘Sneezy’ didn’t have the greatest of starts to the meeting when Abacadabras took a nasty spill in the Champion Hurdle but the despair only hung around for half an hour until when Black Tears mugged Concertista in the Mare’s Hurdle.

The circumstances of her recent elevation are unfortunate but when the recent controversy is long forgotten her name will be found on the honour roll forever.

Sportsmanship

The congratulatory backslaps from colleagues for the winning jockey seemed more sincere, almost amplified by the eerily silent racecourse.

The warm words expressed in post-race interviews came across as more heartfelt in the stripped-down emptiness of the place.

The greatest act of sporting decency this week? Jonathan Moore self-isolating from the ride of a lifetime on Flooring Porter because he felt it would be unfair to both connections and the horse.

And then more pain watching on as Mark Walsh steered his other good ride, Vanillier clear in the Albert Bartlett.

Hopefully, his days will soon come.

The ‘Irish Village’

Those congratulatory back slaps came beside the stand in the Best Mate enclosure at the centre of the course.

This is the cheapest ticket in normal years and usually the rowdiest enclave by the end of the day.

This week it was the segregated home of just over a hundred of the travelling Irish stable staff, so it was a little more sedate than normal, but still played crucial role to the backdrop of the meeting.

The clapping and whooping coming from the stand for every Irish winner lost none of its vibrancy as the week progressed despite all the repetitions.

It brought some much-needed warmth to what might have been a cold, barren place.

Point-to-Points

Honeysuckle, Shishkin, Minella Indo, Bob Ollinger, Monkfish, Sir Gerhard, Chantry House, Tellmesomethinggirl, Mount Ida, Belfast Banter, Vanillier, Porlock Bay, are all graduates of the point-to-point field.

And that’s just the winners this week – a trawl through the placed horses would find plenty more where they came from.

Possibly the greatest ever race took place at Ballinaboola near New Ross in County Wexford back in February 2018, a 4YO maiden over two and a half miles. Winner: Envoi Allen. Third: Appreciate It.

This is an incredibly important sector to the well being of the industry and an integral part of the supply chain that produced much of this week’s excellence.

Performance of the Week

Fifty-six arguments could be made, one animal and one human in each race.

The finest four-legged performance came in the very first race of the week when Appreciate It trounced some talented opponents to win the Supreme Novice Hurdle by 24 lengths.

It could have been further if Paul Townend had been bothered.

Jack Kennedy wins the human prize for his ride on Mount Ida in the last on Thursday, the day before he excelled once more in the Gold Cup.

The horse looked likely to be pulled up for much of the race he appeared to be going so badly, but Kennedy knew exactly what he was at and delivered him at the second last to win handily.

Rachael

“Ah sure look it,” as they say, mandatorily, in Irish racing. “There’s nothing left to be said.”

Bad Week

Not a time for quibbles given the quality and joy of the 2021 festival.

But the great champions are remembered more fondly when their opponents have substance too.

Ireland are clearly great champions but British National Hunt racing is largely without substance at present. A root and branch review combined with some inventive thinking will be needed. It should start with the prizemoney.