Rachael Blackmore, Henry De Bromhead, Willie Mullins, Paul Townend, you could take your pick at who was the racing star of the 2022 Cheltenham Festival but in the public eye beyond the most deeply invested, this was once again the Rachael show.
The last time a jockey rode the Champion Hurdle and Gold Cup double was 25 years ago when Tony McCoy did it. This time around Rachael Blackmore rode Honeysuckle to a 3 1/2 length win in Tuesday’s Champion Hurdle, the A Plus Tard to a 15 length win in Friday’s Blue Riband Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup.
That is the kind of historic performance that will be remembered long into the future and as ever the grace and charm the jockey showed in her post-race interviews would have melted the hardest of hearts.
The impact she is having and can have into the future on the sport is hard to overestimate. The crowds hit record highs in the Cotswolds with 73,754 on Thursday and 73,875 on Friday and Blackmore’s victory made the front page of newspapers across the two islands.
It was evidenced on Saturday when she was back to the more working day environment of Tipperary racecourse where she rode one horse, one win and signed perhaps a 1,000 autographs.
The crowd was double what it would normally have been and they were all there for just one reason.
There will be a similar benefit now that we are back to unrestricted crowds at Fairyhouse for the Boylesports Irish National over Easter Weekend, for Punchestown at the end of next month and then for the Galway Races in July.
Ireland ended the week with wins in all seven races on the final day, with all five of the Championship races across the Festival and with 18 race wins to the ten secured by British trained runners.
Paul Townend was the Champion Jockey, Willie Mullins the Champion trainer with a remarkable ten winners out of his County Carlow stables.
It is an unquestionably and incomparably golden age for Irish jump racing.
We should treasure it.
