Rachael Blackmore did not get much wrong at the Cheltenham Festival last year, riding her rivals into the ground on the way to six winners and the leading jockey title, spotting every gap, picking every moment, seizing every opportunity.
In fact, the one blunder the Irish jockey made did not come while sitting on a horse at all, but rather when choosing which one to ride in the first place; given the pick of the flying Henry de Bromhead’s runners in the Gold Cup she sided with A Plus Tard, then had the best view in the house as stablemate Minella Indo scampered away to lead home a one-two for the yard.
“On a personal level it was just horrendous,” Blackmore said soon after, admitting to having a “horrible feeling in my stomach” as she crossed the line. “You never get that close to a Gold Cup and he was mine to ride.”
In her bid to prove the first half of that statement flawed, it is little surprise - in straight form terms - that Blackmore decided long ago to stick rather than twist.
A Plus Tard has been antepost favourite for the race ever since a 22-length rout in the Betfair Chase at Haydock in November and hardly damaged his claims when being nabbed on the line in the Savills Chase at Christmas by Galvin, the winner galvanised late on by Davy Russell that day and, in a division that has been muddling all season long, surely the most dependable of the other contenders here.
A winner at last year’s Festival over an even longer trip in the National Hunt Chase, stamina is of no concern for the eight-year-old, who was mooted as a Grand National candidate before his progression forced a change of plan and a first tilt at the Festival blue-riband as Gordon Elliott’s sole runner.
Minella Indo, by contrast, has shown nothing like his best form since last year’s meeting but there is an increasing acceptance on De Bromhead’s part that, away from Cheltenham, he rarely does, the nine-year-old boasting two victories and a second from his three Festival runs.
“He just comes alive here,” the trainer said last year, and the hope will be that a trip to the Cotswolds does the trick again.
Willie Mullins’ Al Boum Photo is another with plenty of course previous and was chasing a hat-trick of victories in the race when finishing behind the De Bromhead pair 12 months ago. Still only a ten-year-old, he is back for another crack, though the vibes from the Closutton camp have not been especially positive.
Between A Plus Tard’s victory at Haydock and that of another of Mullins’ contenders, Tornado Flyer, in the King George VI Chase, the two most prestigious staying chases in Britain so far this season have been stolen by raiders from the Emerald Isle, which does not bode especially well.
The home team is headed by Dan Skelton’s Protektorat, whose 25-length thrashing of the now-retired Native River in the Aintree mud in December is either a superb piece of form or impossible to interpret depending on who you ask.
A messy Cotswolds Chase, run over course and not-quite-distance and supposedly a useful trial, threw up more questions than answers as far as the best of the rest of the British are concerned. Even the victor, Chantry House, did not emerge with much credit, though runner-up Santini, a figure of much unfair ridicule, at least has form in the race, having been second in 2020 when still trained by Nicky Henderson.
It all points to the market being correct in giving Blackmore a favourite’s chance of righting the wrongs of a year ago, though such is the lot of the jockey, you could just as easily imagine lightning striking twice.
Still, it could be worse - a quirk of commitments means that Jack Kennedy, beneficiary of Blackmore’s error of selection in winning last year’s renewal, does not even have a ride in this.
