The roar was back anyway.
The Cheltenham roar. Back in full voice. It was definitely timidified last year. Less heart-felt. Yet, there it was, back again, hearty and strong, when they said they’re coming out onto the track, and when they said they’re off.
And Olé Olé when Lossiemouth won the Champion Hurdle.
You don't hear Olé Olé at a racecourse very often. You would have heard it if you were at Leopardstown when Galopin Des Champs won the Irish Gold Cup last year, and you would have heard it if you had been at Cheltenham on Tuesday. In the stands or in the betting ring, just after Paul Townend had pulled up, as Danny Mullins was hugging him.
There was a fulness about the week, a fulness of crowd, a fulness of field, a fulness of atmosphere. Attendances were up. Up on Tuesday, up on Wednesday, up on Thursday, down slightly on Friday’s sell-out. Over a quarter of a million people clicked through the turnstiles during the week, which represented an increase of over 3% on last year. It’s still a long way from the 280,627 of 2022, when the people rushed back after a year when they weren’t allowed go, when they weren’t allowed go anywhere. But still, it was an important step in the right direction. There was a sense of occasion about the whole week, and that’s paramount, that’s the essence of Cheltenham.
The pre-Supreme Novices’ Hurdle markets said 17 Irish winners, maybe 18, maybe 16. In the end, there were 15 and, going into the Martin Pipe Hurdle, at 14-13, a Prestbury Cup tie was more than possible – there hadn’t been a tie since 2019 – and it was more possible even than that when Hot Fuss landed in front over the last. Then Paddy O’Brien conjured a run from Air Of Entitlement, not dissimilar to the run that Rachael Blackmore conjured from her last year, and she cleared away. A first Cheltenham Festival winner for the rider, and you could see how much it meant, a 27th for Henry de Bromhead, a second of the week for the trainer, as it was for owners Robcour, after Heart Wood had won the Ryanair Chase under Darragh O’Keeffe on Thursday.
It had all started fairly inauspiciously for Ireland Inc., insofar as Ireland Inc. exists, with British-trained horses filling the first three places in the Supreme. Not only that, but the three of them had it between them from the top of the home straight, and they finished clear of the fourth horse, also a British-trained horse.
Then Kargese won the Arkle.
Kargese is fast and her jumping is electric and, quickly into her racing rhythm for Danny Mullins, she put it all together to see off her stable companion Kopek Des Bordes and favourite Lulamba. The talk is that Kopek Des Bordes is the one to take out of the race with next year’s Champion Chase in mind, and that may be the case, but it would be a mistake to underestimate Kargese. Again.
Kenny Alexander’s mare was the first of Willie Mullins’ eight which, when put with the 113 he had between 1995 and 2024 inclusive, took his Cheltenham Festival tally to 121. That secured a 13th leading trainer award, an eighth in a row. And you can argue that his eight winners this year usurped the 10 that he had last year, including, as they did, the Champion Hurdle, the Champion Chase and the Gold Cup.
Lossiemouth was brilliant, given her chance in the Champion Hurdle and given a set of cheekpieces, and Il Etait Temps laid his Cheltenham hoodoo to rest, and Gaelic Warrior showed his class and his pace and his stamina and his mental fortitude. He is a work in progress no longer, and Rich and Susannah Ricci are now the first owners to have the winner of the Champion Hurdle and the Gold Cup in the same year since Dorothy Paget.
Paul Townend was common to all three, and he shone again. He played down his ride on Il Etait Temps, he said that he couldn’t go any faster than he was going, but that’s not it. He had the confidence in his horse’s ability and in his own judgement of pace to sit well off the leaders, allow his horse ease his way into the race, and then deliver him with maximum impact. He won by 10 lengths, and that was after that stumble at the last. Il Etait Temps’ finishing speed according to RaceIQ was just over 101% of his overall speed. That’s Townend’s judgement of pace. Five of his seven rivals’ was in the 90s, and one was in the 80s.
The champion jockey’s four wins, a Turners Novices’ Hurdle, a Champion Hurdle, a Champion Chase and a Gold Cup, took his Cheltenham Festival total to 42, and saw him win the leading rider’s award at Cheltenham for the sixth time and for the fifth time in a row.
He set new landmarks this week too, reached new milestones. He is now the first jockey to win the Champion Hurdle, the Champion Chase and the Gold Cup at the same Cheltenham Festival. Also, when he rode Gaelic Warrior to victory, he claimed his fifth Gold Cup, more than any other rider in the history of the race. Ruby Walsh extolled the virtues of his Gold Cup-winning ride too, he talked about how he controlled the race. Paul Townend wasn’t filling his shoes any more, said the 12-time champion, he was re-creating them.
Strange that King Rasko Grey had two stable companions in front of him in the market for the Turners Novices’ Hurdle, despite the fact that Paul Townend had chosen to ride him. Willie Mullins was fairly matter-of-fact about riding arrangements afterwards. No, Paul went for him straight away, he said. He was also fairly matter-of-fact about King Rasko Grey’s future. He could be a Champion Hurdle horse, he said.
You probably hadn’t heard much about Apolon De Charnie before he was declared for the Triumph Hurdle, unless you were listening closely to David Casey at the Cheltenham Preview Evening in Gleesons in Drogheda the week beforehand. A 50/1 shot, only half as big a shock as Poniros was last year, he was delivered with his effort by Patrick Mullins, and he stayed on strongly to get home by a length and a half. That three-year-olds’ hurdle at Auteuil last September in which he finished second behind Proactif is looking like a decent race all right.
Gavin Cromwell had the 1-3-4 in the Cross-Country Chase, the field led home by Final Orders under a fine ride from Conor Stone-Walsh, who was registering his first victory at the Cheltenham Festival. And Gavin Cromwell had others run well in defeat. Only By Night beat all except Dinoblue in the Mares’ Chase. She saw the trip out well and she pulled clear of the rest. Will The Wise finished second to favourite Madara in the Plate, The Passing Wife finished third in the Albert Bartlett. Inowthewayurthinkin stuck to his task gallantly to finish third in the Gold Cup, his best run of the season by far, in his first-time cheekpieces, despite putting in a less-than-fluent round of jumping.
Wodhooh provided Gordon Elliott with his winner again, this time in the hands of Jack Kennedy. She is now 10 for 11 over hurdles for her current trainer, her only defeat coming at the hands of the new Champion Hurdler in the Aintree Hurdle last April. She will surely take some beating in the Mares’ Hurdle again.
Other Gordon Elliott horses ran well, Oldschool Outlaw was second in the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle, Brighterdaysahead was second in the Champion Hurdle, Favori De Champdou was second in the Cross-Country. Just shows you, how difficult it is to get a winner. How competitive it is. That’s why Cheltenham Festival winners mean so much.
Home By The Lee provided Joseph O’Brien with another one, another remarkable racehorse, his fifth attempt at the Stayers’ Hurdle and his first win in it, at the age off 11. He responded when JJ Slevin asked him to pick up, and he was always holding the challenge of Ballyburn.
The Stayers’ Hurdle used to be a young man’s game. In the 35 renewals of the race that ran from 1986 to 2022, there was no winner aged older than nine. Now, in the four renewals since, one winner was 10 and two were 11.
Saratoga is four, he was a month old when Home By The Lee ran in his first Stayers’ Hurdle, and JP McManus’ horse belied a weakness in the pre-race market to run out an impressive winner of the Fred Winter Hurdle under Mark Walsh. In so doing, he added further ballast to the rated hurdle at Naas in early February as a pointer to the Fred Winter. To Band Of Outlaws, Aramax, Brazil and Jazzy Matty, now add Saratoga. That’s two Cheltenham Festival winners for his trainer Padraig Roche, who won the same race in 2022 with the afore-mentioned Brazil, Saratoga’s half-brother, conqueror that day of Gaelic Warrior.
Noel Meade had his first Cheltenham Festival winner in 2000, when Sausalito Bay powered up the hill in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle under Paul Carberry to get home by three parts of a length from Best Mate, and he had his seventh on Wednesday, when The Mourne Rambler won the Champion Bumper (replay below).
Unlimited Replays
of all UK and Irish races with our Race Replays
Discover Sporting Life Plus Benefits
It was a stroke of genius by the Meathman to employ the services of another Meathman in Colin Keane. The six-time champion jockey on the flat gave his horse a superb ride too. He didn’t panic when he was well back in the field on the run to the top of the hill. He allowed his horse move easily into the race on the run down it, moved wide to secure clear passage on the run to the home turn, then asked his horse for his effort after they straightened up.
Keane has won some of the top flat races around the globe, he has ridden Group 1 winners and Classic winners and Royal Ascot winner and Breeders’ Cup winners, but he seemed to get a great kick out of this one. The crowds, the atmosphere.
The Cheltenham roar.
More from Sporting Life
- Free bets
- Racecards
- Fast results
- Full results and free video replays
- Horse racing news
- Horse racing tips
- Horse racing features
- Download our free iOS and Android app
- Football and other sports tips
- Podcasts and video content
Safer gambling
We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.
Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.
