All hail Queen Rachael Blackmore of Cheltenham, who finally got to bask in the warm, long and loud applause of her adoring public a full year after first being crowned. Her repeat victory on board Honeysuckle in this year’s Champion Hurdle meant there was no more popular winner on the opening day of the first Festival since 2020 to open its doors to the public, even if a nasty fall in the next race quickly brought her crashing back to earth.
Such is the life of a professional jockey, but her latest big race success was a genuinely heartwarming occasion to be part of. For all her modesty, Blackmore clearly enjoyed the very public acclaim that was so cruelly denied to her by circumstance last year.
It was the highlight of a long day. “ARE YOU READY TO ROAR?” the Racing Post’s front page had excitedly enquired of readers and racegoers in a nod to the fabled guttural release that rolls down from the packed grandstand and across the verdant green of the racecourse to greet the start of the opening race at Cheltenham each March. While the answer seemed to be a resounding yes, a false start from the skittish Dysart Dynamo in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle meant this year’s collective bellow came to a premature end. Although the 70,000 present tried to rally themselves for another visceral outpouring of celebratory joie de vivre when the starter, Robbie Supple, re-released the tapes and the field finally began motoring on their two-mile trek, the moment had passed.
Braying drunks. A tidal wave of tweed and mustard corduroy. Ray Parlour skulling pints in the Guinness Village at 10.30am. Slowly but surely, nature is healing. At least you could certainly be forgiven for thinking so given the almost total absence of face masks adorning the tens of thousands of racegoers who converged on a heartwarmingly sunny Cheltenham for day one of this year’s annual National Hunt jamboree. In the racecard the Jockey Club preached caution, good hand hygiene and the avoidance of congregating in “busy areas”. With punters piling six-deep around the parade ring and at the counters of every available bar, it was resolutely ignored.
Pride of place on the front cover went to Blackmore and Honeysuckle, the beaming jockey’s arm raised in triumph following her victory on board the Henry de Bromhead-trained mare in last year’s Champion Hurdle. The undisputed star of that particular Festival, when she announced herself to a wider UK audience by booting home six winners in Gloucestershire, it was a delight to see her get her raucous post-race dues this time around.
This year the crowds returned in their droves and as the most enthusiastic among them queued patiently outside the main gates in early morning sunshine, the racecourse itself was bustling with activity. Their dawn gallops done, work riders sat around smoking and sipping coffee, while the blinding studio lights on a gantry overlooking the parade ring illuminated the fresh-faced features of Oli Bell and guests as they recorded ITV’s daily primer The Opening Show.
Around the concourse various groups of casual workers received last-minute instruction before bracing themselves for a hard day’s graft in front of griddles and behind beer pumps, while those employed by the more exclusive dining and drinking emporiums engaged in the last-minute buffing and polishing of glass and silverware before the arrival of well-heeled guests. Many of them touched down in a steady stream of helicopters before being driven up a VIP corridor adjacent to the run-in in courtesy of chauffeur-driven Bentleys. Oh, how the other half live.
It was all a giddy preamble ahead of the first of 28 races scheduled to take place this week, with Irish raiders expected to continue their astonishing dominance of last year. However, first blood in the Supreme went to the English, with the fall three out of the Willie Mullins-trained Dysart Dynamo leaving the way clear for Constitution Hill to lead home a Nicky Henderson one-two in the most convincing style. Sent off the 9-4 joint favourite, there was nothing half-hearted about the roars that encouraged Nico de Boinville’s five-year-old mount up the home straight and past the winning post as he left his stablemate Jonbon trailing 22 lengths behind. One of three Mullins entries, Kilcruit was a surprisingly distant third.
“That was awesome,” said a delighted Henderson, who later saddled the 18-1 outsider Marie’s Rock to win the Mares’ Hurdle. “I know what the second horse is and I would have been very surprised if anything could have done that to Jonbon, so he must be an extraordinary animal. The hype horse earlier on in the year was Jonbon, then this fella woke up from his slumbers at home and we suddenly realised that actually he was very good.”
Sadly, it was not all good news for a racing industry still trying to rebuild its reputation after being found seriously in breach of its unwritten social contract with the public following the leak of abhorrent photographs and video footage featuring the desecration of racehorses, and the Festival suffered its first equine fatality of the week in the Supreme in Shallwehaveonemore. In a field of athletic endeavour where occasional casualties are a tragic inevitability, it is to be hoped that in the coming days it is only discarded betting slips and empty pint pots that pile high.
