Cheltenham Festival

   Peter Molony is best known for being the man who bought the reigning Champion Hurdler Honeysuckle (GB) (Sulamani {Ire}) on behalf of his client Kenny Alexander. He also works for Sheikh Fahad's Qatar Racing operation, is an agent for Goffs and has had a multitude of top horses through his hands at Rathmore Stud. That may be why the Limerick native signs off on his Twitter bio with the word 'busy'!    Son of the legendary Martin Molony, widely regarded as the best dual-purpose jockey of all time, Peter...

Willie Mullins and Nicky Henderson, two of the most successful trainers in Cheltenham Festival history, have backed the decision to keep the meeting to four days.  The success of the Festival has led to growing speculation in recent years that the showpiece meeting of the National Hunt season would be extended to five days and Henderson was one of the main supporters of that idea initially. However, the man who has lit up Cheltenham with three-time Champion Hurdle winner See You Then, Gold Cup winners Long Run and Bobs Worth,...

The man for all seasons stands at the top of the Sharpridge gallop and doesn't need the delirious commentary of the skylarks to tell him that spring is now right on the heels of winter. Alan King can see that straight in front of him. The first pair to emerge from the murk of the distant valley floor includes his latest steeplechasing star, Edwardstone (GB) (Kayf Tara {GB}), doing his first work since winning at the Cheltenham Festival--and with a gusto that suggests he can eke out one last novice...

The 2022 G1 Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup was broadcast for the first time on Fox Sports in the U.S. on Friday and was named a "resounding success". Rachael Blackmore triumphed aboard A Plus Tard (Fr) (Kapgarde {Fr}) at Cheltenham Racecourse, and the experience impressed American television executives. Fox Sports, working with HBA Media and racecourse Media Group, took the Racing TV feed, fronted by Nick Luck, for an hour around the Gold Cup. Tony Allevato, the Chief Revenue Officer of NYRA, who was experiencing the Cheltenham Festival for the first...

CHELTENHAM, UK--Emotions ran high at Cheltenham on Friday as Rachael Blackmore, the most successful female National Hunt jockey of all time, continued to rewrite the history books, this time by becoming the first woman to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Her willing and sublimely talented partner was A Plus Tard (Fr) (Kapgarde {Fr}), who was runner-up to his stable-mate Minella Indo (Ire) (Beat Hollow {GB}) last year but turned the tables in emphatic fashion this time around. Tackling the defending champion for the lead over the final fence, the 8-year-old...

CHELTENHAM, UK--Depending on your preference, Thursday at Cheltenham is either Paddy Power Stayers' Hurdle day or Ryanair Chase day but either way, on St Patrick's Day each of the Irish-sponsored co-feature races produced a repeat Irish winner. The one key difference 12 months on was that the owners of Flooring Porter (Ire) (Yeats {Ire}) and Allaho (Fr) (No Risk At All {Fr}) were allowed on course to celebrate in person. And celebrate they did. The huge black-and-white-bedecked entourage that accompanied the dual Stayers' Hurdle winner Flooring Porter made the most...

CHELTENHAM, UK--It is a rare moment when a beaten horse elicits a more rousing reception than a winner, but then Tiger Roll (Ire) (Authorized {Ire}) is the rarest of beasts. An enigma sometimes, but scintillating on his many days in the sun, he retires a proper champion of a horse after giving his all for one final run in relentless rain.  Nobody could claim that the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase is a championship race - in fact there are those who call for its exclusion from the Festival - but...

CHELTENHAM, UK--There are horses, and then there's Honeysuckle (GB). Thought it may seem like sacrilege to compare the superstar hurdler to the greatest racehorse of the modern era, there has been no better winning sequence on the turf since Frankel (GB) stepped off it to the breeding shed a decade ago, and Honeysuckle isn't stopping yet. The daughter of Sulamani (Ire) is now a dual Champion Hurdle winner, a treble Irish Champion Hurdle winner, unbeaten in 15 starts under rules, plus her debut triumph in a point-to-point at Dromahane at...

Whichever way you slice it, the green, white and orange of the Irish tricolour ran right through the middle of last year's Cheltenham Festival results. Some 28 races were run during the four biggest days in the jumps racing calendar, and the Irish raiding party won an unprecedented 23 of them. This haul included the four championship prizes, as Honeysuckle (GB) (Sulamani {Ire}) won the Champion Hurdle, Put The Kettle On (Ire) (Stowaway {GB}) claimed the Champion Chase, Flooring Porter (Ire) (Yeats {Ire}) took the Stayers' Hurdle and Minella Indo...

"You start to feel like you're waiting for Godot," says Lucy Wadham, referring to the fictional character who never actually appears in Samuel Beckett's play of the same name. It has been a long winter and the days can seem to pass agonisingly slowly when you have a horse aiming for a big-race target, but the sand in the Cheltenham Festival hourglass has now nearly all run through. Wadham has only to wait until Tuesday afternoon to unleash the bonny grey mare who has been at the forefront of the...

Jockey Rachael Blackmore will be awarded the 2021 Irish Racing Hero Award at the annual Horse Racing Ireland Awards in December. Blackmore became the first woman to claim the Cheltenham Festival Leading Jockey title with six winners. She found Champion Hurdle success with Honeysuckle (GB) (Sulamani {Ire}) on Tuesday, a Triumph Hurdle score with Quilixios (GB) (Maxios {GB}) on Friday and also won races in the middle of the meeting with Bob Olinger (Ire) (Sholokhov {Ire}) and Sir Gerhard (Ire) (Jeremy) on Wednesday and Allaho (Fr) (No Risk At All...

The crowning moment in an extraordinary week for Henry de Bromhead was provided by not one but two horses when Minella Indo (Ire) (Beat Hollow {GB}) beat his stable-mate A Plus Tard (Fr) (Kapgarde {Fr}) in steeplechasing's greatest prize, the Cheltenham Gold Cup. The victory of Barry Maloney's 8-year-old also wrote de Bromhead's name in the history books as the first person to train the winners of the Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase and Gold Cup in the same year.  "This is crazy stuff, it's not reality," said the trainer as...