As I Sit here now, almost 2 weeks on from the Cheltenham festival, a sense of relief fills me. A relief with so many levels. The relief that all of our team came home in one piece, a relief that the horses ran well, the relief that the results reflect how well they ran, the relief that we came away with a few winners, a relief that the work of such a big week is done for another year, and the relief that nothing went wrong!

Relief is the right word to begin my story of the week with, the relief of watching Slade Steel come up the hill in front in the Supreme Novice’s Hurdle of the week was indescribable. When you’re in Cheltenham, it’s almost like a pressure cooker, and the only thing that can lift the lid of it is a winner, how lucky we were to win the first race of the week! Slade Steel is a lovely horse owned by Robcour, he has a placid personality and a presence about him that doesn’t go unnoticed. After an amazing run in Leopardstown in February, finishing 2^nd behind the impressive Ballyburn, yet 14 lengths clear of King of Kingsfield, I couldn’t believe how under the radar he was when arriving in Cheltenham. No talk of him, he was 2^nd favourite, but seemingly to the outside world was never going to get ahead of Mystical Power, the Willie Mullins trained favourite in the race. Thankfully, they were wrong, and we were off to a flyer! 

 As a team, we have been truly spoilt by Honeysuckle over the last few years; she has always run on Tuesday, and won on Tuesday, giving us that day 1 winner for the last 4 years. In 2020 she won the Mares Novice Hurdle, in 2021 & 2022 she won the Champion Hurdle and in 2023 she bowed out winning the Mares Hurdle. To load a lorry and head to Cheltenham without her this year was strange, almost terrifying. She’s been so good to Henry & the team and always dug us out of a hole if we ever needed her to, to face into the biggest week of the year without her was as sombre as we thought it would be, although we always knew this day would come and in fairness to Kenny Alexander and her connections, they were great sportsmen with her and allowed us so many terrific days with her. 

When we arrived in Cheltenham my superstitious self took over, and I thought long and hard about who was going to be stabled in Honeysuckle’s stable, stable number 2, the stable that has never let us down! I don’t need to tell you at this stage, that of course I placed Slade Steel in there! Stable number 2, the glory stable for another year! 

Horse racing, never a sport to leave you on a high for long, after a messy start the Arkle didn’t go our way and we were left scratching heads as to what happened there. That’s racing! 

And so the week goes on, the next horse pulls up and I’m starting to feel the lid creep back onto the pressure cooker! Then comes the Mares Hurdle, we saddle 3 lovely mares for this race and I certainly can’t pick them apart, I couldn’t have put money onto any one of these and not the other two if I was a gambler, I could warrant them all being there equally. The results confirmed that as they came up the hill 2^nd, 3^rd & 4^th behind the wonderfully talented and beautiful grey mare of Rich Ricci’s Lossiemouth. That keeps the lid at bay for another while, Phew! 

We roll into Wednesday and there are new faces in the stable yard, Tuesdays runners have gone home, the horses that were situated in Aintree have come to Cheltenham, the horses from the overflow yard in Cheltenham have moved down into the main yard, and the first stage of the jigsaw was complete! The juggling of horses between yards in Cheltenham is a task in itself! 

By this stage, we have lost the cross country race. The ground was simply too wet out there for the race to be run safely, and the race was abandoned. The disgust amongst people was real, it’s one of the biggest spectacles of the week! Rest assured; nobody was as disgusted as Minella Indo loading up to go home without getting his sports day! He’s too long in the tooth to pull the wool over his eyes! He knows Cheltenham; he loves Cheltenham, and he knows that he should have got his day that week, but Mother Nature said no and that’s just the way it goes, I’m still trying to find a way to explain that to him! There are times I would give anything to be able to speak to these marvellous animals, and for his sake, this is one of them! 

Aside from the disappointment of the cross country race being cancelled, Wednesday is still a big day, and thankfully it was for us! The bridesmaid finally became the bride! Captain Guiness has always had a soft spot in my heart, he’s so consistent and such a loveable rogue! My superstitious self placed him in stable number 10, the stable A Plus Tard had won a Gold Cup out of! Like stable number 2, stable 10 is on the lucky list for another year! He is the apple of Sam Cotterill and Jack Kelly’s eyes; he has had a few disappointing runs before now, but afterwards it was found that his heart wasn’t quite right. Now, with his heart in great health, he was able to have his day in the sun, and oh boy he deserved it! El Fabiolo was the favourite for the 2 mile Queen Mother Champion Chase, he made a blunder early on in the race and Paul Townend felt it was best for him to pull him up, selfless horsemanship that is only to be admired. When El Fabiolo had pulled up safely, my heart skipped a beat, l couldn’t let myself dare to dream that he was finally going to get his day, but HE DID!! Owned by Declan Landy, and led in by Declan, Sam and Jack Captain Guiness and Rachael Blackmore proudly made their way into the winners enclosure. Rachael again making history, becoming the first female jockey to win the Champion Chase, adding this to her CV of Gold Cup, Grand National & many others. 

Thursday led to the Ryanair, Envoi Allen’s big day, or so we hoped. Dan Skeltons Protektorat came home in front of Envoi Allen in a gallant 2^nd place. The ground being as soft as it was wouldn’t have helped his case, and on the day, it wasn’t to be. There are days like that, difficult pills to swallow, but as we keep saying, that’s racing! The day closed on Thursday with Whacker Clan running a blinder into 3^rd place in the Kim Muir under John Gleeson. Again, the ground had gone against Whacker Clan and so to run so well into 3^rd place was just fantastic! He seems to have really found his feet this season and is giving the Whacker Clan syndicate some great days out. 

Friday was a quiet day for us with only 4 runners, one of those was however, Jungle Boogie in the Gold Cup. He ran a super race to finish 6th; he was keen throughout his race and didn’t give Rachael Blackmore an easy time of things, big stages like Cheltenham can do that to horses, the crowd, the atmosphere, the noise. They have their own minds after all. We went to round off the week in the boys’ race, the final race of the week is always the Martin Pipe restricted to Conditional jockeys. We were represented by J P McManus’s Waterford Whispers in this ridden by stable conditional Mike O’Connor. He was unlucky in defeat and came home 2^nd to Gordon Elliotts Better Days ahead providing Danny Gilligan with his first festival success alongside Noel & Valerie Moran of Bective Stud with theirs. Noel & Valerie are terrific supporters of the industry and to see what the victory meant to them was lovely. It was certainly hard to begrudge them it. 

So that was Cheltenham in a nutshell! We had many horses run well over the week that I haven’t mentioned as we would be here all day and as those of you that know me well will know, talking too much is something I’m good at! 

The biggest achievement of the week for me personally was that I had made no major errors! I hadn’t forgotten a horse or any important colours and anything I had forgotten could be borrowed in the stable yard! I always tell myself leaving that I just need the right horses and the right colours, and we can beg, borrow or steal the rest! 

As a team, I feel the biggest achievement of the week was the horses. How well Henry, Davy Roche, and the team at home had the horses prepared for the week is an absolute testimony to their hard work and dedication. I get the easy bit! Anybody can do my job when the horses are so well ready for the week ahead! 

As I sit here now with my suitcase finally unpacked, washing all done, both mine and the horses, the realisation that this weekend sees the Fairyhouse Easter Racing Festival including the Irish Grand National dawns upon me. Followed 2 weeks later by Aintree and the Grand National, the ball keeps bouncing and the wheels keep turning, that’s racing!!