THERE WAS A point in the 2022 Cheltenham Gold Cup, just after they landed over the third last fence, when Rachael Blackmore had a decision to make. They were going for home around her. She could see Robbie Power moving easily into the lead up ahead on Minella Indo as other rivals assembled: Charlie Deutsch on Royal Pagaille and Paul Townend on Al Boum Photo just in front of her, Bryan Cooper on Asterion Forlonge to her left, Harry Skelton moving up on her right on Protektorat.
Kick now or wait?
Surreal that she was here again, 12 months on. She and A Plus Tard had come up just short in 2021. They just couldn’t catch Minella Indo. And the year she had in 2021. Six Cheltenham Festival winners and leading rider at the meeting. The Grand National a month later on Minella Times, stuff you wouldn’t dream of, real life fairytale stuff, and all the awards. RTE Sports Person of the Year, Irish Times Sportswoman of the Year, BBC World Sports Star, the latest addition to a roll that includes Roger Federer and Tiger Woods and Seve Ballesteros and Martina Navratilova and Muhammad Ali and Pelé. Even so, defeat in the Gold Cup gnawed away at her, a pebble in her shoe as she walked out of Cheltenham in 2021.
People said it to her then, ‘Ah, you’ll win it next year on him.’ But back then, the 2022 Gold Cup seemed so far away. A year can be an eternity in racing, in sport. So many things had to happen for her even to get back there with the chance to go one better. They both had to get there for starters. A Plus Tard had to be healthy and well and in good form, she had to be healthy and well herself. But if they both got there, she resolved that she would be ready.
She thought about it deeply. A Plus Tard is all class, all pace. Henry de Bromhead’s horse had the speed to beat Chacun Pour Soi in a Grade 1 race over two miles, so ride him for pace. Delay your challenge, ride him for his turn of foot. Maximise your chance.
So when her rivals assembled around her as they raced away from the third last fence and towards the home turn, the temptation was to kick, hold your position, don’t let the leaders get too far away from you. She got lower in her saddle for a second and gave A Plus Tard a little push. She could feel the power there, the energy that he had, like when you put your foot on the accelerator for a second but then ease off. You know that the power is there, ready for when you want it.
She didn’t want it yet, so she sat up again. Be patient. This is where you wanted to be, she told herself. Twelve months later and here you are again. All these thoughts in fractions of seconds as they hurtled towards the home turn.
Not yet.
Honeysuckle was different. Honeysuckle was the reigning champ, the Champion Hurdler, the title defender. Honeysuckle had never been beaten. Before the 2022 Champion Hurdle, Rachael Blackmore had ridden Honeysuckle in 14 races, and together they had won all 14.
There was next to nobody there when they won the Champion Hurdle together in 2021. It was brilliant, to win the Champion Hurdle, but they returned to an echoing stand and a hollow winner’s enclosure. Even owner Kenny Alexander wasn’t allowed to attend.
That’s why the 2022 Champion Hurdle was so important. The crowds were there, willing her on, and that added to the pressure, the expectation. But it’s pressure you want. That’s why you do it, to ride good horses in good races, to go there with chances. To feel the pressure that expectation brings.
Henry de Bromhead had Honeysuckle primed, as he always does, and Rachael kept things simple on her, as she always does. Got her settled not far off the pace, a little wide, options everywhere. Fourth as they turned at the top of the hill, they travelled well down the hill. A small gap appeared between Appreciate It and Zanahiyr as they raced down the hill towards the second last flight of hurdles, so Rachael allowed Honeysuckle nose into it. She knew that she had the horse to get her there, and that allowed her to make her ground among horses, save the energy that she would otherwise have expended by going wide.
They jumped the second last flight in a share of the lead, and Rachael gave her mare a squeeze as they raced to the home turn. Honeysuckle accelerated, one length clear, two lengths clear. And hurtling towards the final flight, her rider looked for her stride and she saw it, fully four strides away from the obstacle. She asked Honeysuckle to make it – one, two, three, up! – and the mare responded. She flew the final flight as her nearest rival Epatante clipped the top of it, and then she was off, bounding up the Cheltenham hill that she knows so well.
Rachael took four or five strides after she landed over the last before taking a glance up at the big screen to her left, and she saw that she and Honeysuckle were clear. She didn’t think then though, ‘I’m going to win the Champion Hurdle again.’ She didn’t allow herself. She just kept Honeysuckle going forward, kept her concentration. It’s a tough hill. It was only when she hit the winning line, when she was past the line, that she started to take it all in. A Champion Hurdle, another Champion Hurdle.
Her over-riding feeling was relief. Not euphoria, mainly relief. Relief that she had delivered. And then all the rest of it. Incredulity. Disbelief to go with her relief. ‘We have done this again.’ And the crowds, owner Kenny Alexander there this year too, and for trainer Henry de Bromhead. And coming back into a cacophony that felt like it was twice as loud as usual because they had to make up for last year.
But when she raced around the home turn in the Gold Cup on A Plus Tard, Honeysuckle was three days and 17 races ago, and that felt like a different era.
The field fanned out on the run to the second last fence, a gap appeared between Al Boum Photo and Protektorat, and A Plus Tard moved into it and picked up. He jumped into second place over the second last fence and set off after Minella Indo, two lengths behind. By the time they rose to the final fence though, he was level with his stable companion. He jumped the fence well and landed in front, and it was only then that his rider asked him for maximum effort. When she did, A Plus Tard took off, accelerated up the hill to the winning line, where, if his rider had turned around and looked back, she would have seen 15 horse-lengths worth of green grass between herself and her closest rival.
It was massive for so many reasons. The Cheltenham Gold Cup, the pinnacle of National Hunt racing. For A Plus Tard, to go one better than he had last year. For the owners Cheveley Park Stud, the realisation of their ambition. For trainer Henry de Bromhead, another Gold Cup to go with another Champion Hurdle, to win the Champion Hurdle and the Gold Cup again, to win both races for the second year in a row, and a 1-2 in the Gold Cup again.
And for Rachael Blackmore. A lifetime in dreaming, 12 months in planning. A Gold Cup to go with her Champion Hurdle, the first rider since A P McCoy in 1997 to win the Champion Hurdle and the Gold Cup in the same year, and to go with everything else that she has achieved.
She put both hands on A Plus Tard’s neck and he slowed to a walk.
