Honeysuckle was cut from 6-1 to 9-2 by Paddy Power to win the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham next month after taking the Irish equivalent here on Saturday under a strong ride by Rachael Blackmore, who was completing a Grade One double on the day.
There have been many breakthrough moments in Rachael Blackmore’s relentless progress to join the elite riders in Irish jumping’s weighing room, and there was another on Saturday as she completed the first Grade One double of her career on Notebook and Honeysuckle in the Arkle Novice Chase and Irish Champion Hurdle respectively. Both winners started favourite, at 5-4 and 8-11 respectively, and are now leading contenders at Cheltenham, where Blackmore registered the first of eight Grade One wins 11 months ago.
Another run at the Irish jockeys’ title – she finished second behind Paul Townend last year – is probably beyond her, but Blackmore is now riding at a level where quality is more important than quantity. Her acute judgment of pace was evident in her winning rides, while strength in a finish was also required to get both horses home.
Despite her short odds and a six-race unbeaten record, Honeysuckle had some questions to answer as she dropped back from two-and-a-half miles for this two-mile speed test on drying ground. She was also racing on a left-handed track for the first time.
With Blackmore’s assistance, she provided some answers, though not with sufficient conviction to displace another mare, Nicky Henderson’s Epatante, from the top of the Champion Hurdle betting. She was noticeably slower than the front-running Petit Mouchoir over a couple of hurdles, including the last, which allowed Darver Star and Petit Mouchoir to finish within a length of her at the line.
“She travelled effortlessly throughout,” Henry de Bromhead, who saddled both of Blackmore’s winners, said. “Petit Mouchoir always goes a really good gallop and she was able to get upsides him very easily, so she’s shown she has a lot of pace.
“I thought at the second she was slow, and at the second-last, I don’t know if she made a mistake or Rachael let her pop it, then at the last she was obviously [slow]. But it’s her first time going at that speed and that’s no mean feat.”
Notebook was very keen going to the start but Blackmore kept a lid on his enthusiasm once it was underway and had just enough left to repel the persistent challenge of Willie Mullins’s Cash Back after the last.
“He’s a big, improving horse,” Eddie O’Leary, racing manager for the Gigginstown Stud operation, said. “This was his trial for it [the Arkle Trophy] so all being well, I’m assuming he’ll go there.”
A Plus Tard, was the first of several horses to be scratched during the afternoon due to the drying ground, including Fakir D’Oudairies in the Arkle.
Chacun Pour Soi, the runner-up behind A Plus Tard in December, duly took advantage as this was a much-improved performance by the winner that puts him firmly in the picture for the Queen Mother Champion Chase next month.
Willie Mullins, Chacun Pour Soi’s trainer, spoke about the eight-year-old afterwards as being the kind of talent that comes along only “every two or three years” and by the time he picked up the trainer’s prize, his chaser was down to around 3-1 to beat Altior and Defi Du Seuil .
“He was so slick and fast, he was getting a length or a length and a half at every fence without any effort,” Mullins said. “He idled in front, which is a good sign I think, and it just shows how much he’s improved since Christmas.
“I brought him up here on Cheltenham trials day last year and said to Danny [Mullins] to just go around and follow them. After a couple of fences, he was in front of them and leading all the Cheltenham horses, it was absolutely eye-opening.
“Once every two or three years you get a horse coming up the gallops that’s doing stuff it shouldn’t be able to do, and that’s what he did that day. I thought, wow, we could have something here, and it’s turned out that way.”
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De Touzaine
