Perfect 10 HONEYSUCKLE REIGNS SUPREME
HONEYSUCKLE stretched her unbeaten record to 10 – and gave the performance of her career so far – with an awesome display in Leopardstown’s Irish Champion Hurdle.
The 10-length demolition job in the
Chanelle Pharma-sponsored highlight of the Dublin Racing Festival’s opening day saw Rachael Blackmore’s mount slashed to 9-4 favourite with Ladbrokes for the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham on March 16.
Twelve months ago, the Henry de Bromhead-trained mare showed true grit for a half-length margin in the two-mile Grade One test.
But this time Blackmore eased the 10-11 favourite into a four-length lead jumping the second-last hurdle and the race was over, with podium finishers Abacadabras and Sharjah left toiling.
“Sometimes you’d like a set of wing mirrors to know
CHAMPIONS: Rachael Blackmore and Honeysuckle how far ahead you are,” said the winning rider. “She was electrifying – just fantastic.
“I was happy that if she was taking me, I was going to let her – I wasn’t going to bring her back.
“She did that and she really picked up down to the second-last and quickened up the whole way to the line.”
Bookmakers were so taken with the victory that Honeysuckle displaced reigning title-holder Epatante at the head of the Champion Hurdle betting.
Last March, Honeysuckle’s owner Kenny Alexander decided to duck the Champion Hurdle challenge and go for Cheltenham’s Mares’ Hurdle, in which the seven-year-old beat Benie Des Dieux.
But even the ever-cautious De Bromhead admitted the Tuesday feature is now uppermost in his mind.
“I’ll speak to the owners, but you’d feel we’re leaning towards the Champion now,” said the trainer.
“That was deadly – it has to be up there with her best performances to date.”
While Willie Mullins had to be content with Sharjah’s bronze medal, Ireland’s champion trainer monopolised the remaining Grade One events on the card, with triumphs for the Paul Townend-partnered Chacun Pour Soi, Energumene and Gaillard Du Mesnil.
Chacun Pour Soi is now 4-6 for Cheltenham’s Queen Mother Champion Chase after registering back-to-back wins in the Grade One Ladbrokes Dublin Chase, and Mullins said: “He’s an awesome horse to
have anything to do with.”