What would you have given to be there?
To see Rachael Blackmore make history by partnering Honeysuckle to a facile win in the Unibet Champion Hurdle? To roar home Appreciate It as the first-race banker opened up and put the Sky Bet Supreme to bed in a matter of strides off the home turn? To clap in appreciation as Shishkin toyed with his rivals in the Sporting Life Arkle?
Cheltenham was made for days like these, when the stars shine as bright as the spring sunshine and the winter trials and tribulations of deep ground and frozen racecourses are forgotten with moments of sheer brilliance.
The 2021 Festival was never going to be the same. It can’t be, not without 250,000 people flooding through the gates, not without the buzz beforehand, the roar as the tapes go up and receptions for the winners that leave the hairs on the back of the neck standing to attention.
It needs people as well as it needs horses.
But the one saving grace is we are still racing and, after what’s gone before in recent weeks, the feel-good factor came flooding back on a glorious afternoon.
Dream winner of Champion
Blackmore is a jockey out of the top drawer, full stop. One of the most exciting talents to emerge for many years. She’s struck a formidable partnership with Honeysuckle and the brilliance of their Champion victory really lay with how straightforward they made it seem.
She may have made history by becoming the first female rider to win one of the championship races at Cheltenham but in the moment that didn’t matter. It was the partnership we savoured.
At no stage did they ever seem in trouble, travelling with aplomb while Goshen proved intractable and Epatante was never quite where Aidan Coleman wanted her to be.
In the end that didn’t matter – they were chasing shadows from the moment the favourite was given the office. It was a breathtaking display, one that had a seasoned observer like Nick Luck wondering if it’s the best he’d seen in the great race.
It needed to be box office too to compete with what had gone before.
How good is Appreciate It?
Appreciate It set the ball rolling with a performance in the Sky Bet Supreme that almost defied belief. We won’t pretend it was the deepest field ever assembled for the curtain-raiser; numerically it was the smallest to ever face the starter.
But Appreciate It won, unextended, by 24 lengths. Willie Mullins spoke afterwards of how Paul Townend exuded confidence coming down the hill on an 8/11 favourite who was backed as if defeat was out of the question.
But it’s what he did when levelling out that impressed most, the run between the second last and last when a two-length advantage over the chasing pack was extended, relentlessly, remorselessly, by the stride.
He’s taken connections by surprise. At the start of the season they thought he was at best a Ballymore horse, bordering on one for the Albert Bartlett.
For a stayer to have this speed is exciting, seriously exciting. Mullins was happy to draw comparisons with Vautour afterwards. Even though his smile was masked, you could see the glint in the eye.
Box-office Shishkin delivers again
If that was good – what about Shishkin in the Sporting Life Arkle?
The loss of Energumene meant we were robbed of the clash of the week but Nicky Henderson’s star was still following in the footsteps of giants.
When your trainer’s already had six winners of this race, including Sprinter Sacre and Altior in recent years, there’s pressure – even when you’re an odds-on favourite.
This wasn’t a race for the faint hearted as Allmankind and Captain Guinness engaged in a thrilling speed duel. Shishkin sat third, was asked to close them down from the third last, and in control soon after.
Nico de Boinville was able to enjoy the view on the climb to the line and dream of what might still be to come. Henderson has seen it all before of course, but even he could barely believe his luck afterwards.
“We’ve been very lucky in these two-mile chases, especially recently. Altior followed Sprinter and now there seems to be another one and I really believe it,” he said.
Look to the future
So do we all now.
And that was the really exciting thing about Tuesday.
It’s all still in front of us, the days we can all be at the party again, grabbing a Guinness with friends and scampering to the front of the stands to see Appreciate It in the Sporting Life Arkle, Shishkin in the Betway Champion Chase and Honeysuckle defend her Unibet Champion Hurdle crown.
It’s a mouthwatering prospect. As is the thought of racing being on the front pages for all the right reasons on Wednesday morning.
It was a day to celebrate again.