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First Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup Shown On American National TV A Success

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 time, said, “Through our partnerships with HBA Media and Racecourse Media Group, we televised the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Fox Sports, which goes into 55 million homes. It was the first time the race was shown on national TV in the US.

“Fox broadcasts some of the biggest sporting events in the world, the football World Cup, World Series, Superbowl–and now the Cheltenham Gold Cup. We've had a lot of good feedback and it was a resounding success.

“Hopefully this is a starting point, and a chance to educate our viewers and get them familiar with Jump racing. We broadcast 900 hours of racing on Fox last year and to add Jump racing to that schedule can only be a positive thing.

“It was my first time to Cheltenham. It's a proper major league sporting event.”

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Looking Backward and Forward To The Brocklesby

For many years it was a tradition that the British Flat racing season would start on the Carholme at Lincoln towards the end of March and then finish at Manchester (and at Lingfield, which raced on the same afternoon) in November. Lincoln and Manchester have both now been lost in the mists of time, each having closed its doors in the 1960s. Happily, the season's first big race (the Lincolnshire H., as it became known in 1860, having previously been known as the Lincoln Spring H.) and its last big race (the Manchester November H.) have both survived the closure of their original homes, and they now keep the flame of history alive each spring and each autumn on the Town Moor at Doncaster as that great racecourse hosts the first and the last meetings of the turf season each year.

Happily for those who respect the sport's heritage, the Lincoln H. was not the only time-honoured race rescued from the wreckage of Lincoln racecourse and transferred to Doncaster. Additionally, we have the Brocklesby S., which retains its historic distinction as the first 2-year-old race of the new turf season. On Saturday both races will form part of the meeting that kickstarts the British turf season of 2022.

First run in 1849 over a mile and a half, the Brocklesby was reinvented as a five-furlong 2-year-old race in 1875 and has remained as such ever since. The only major change came when, along with the Lincoln, it was relocated to Doncaster after the closure of Lincoln racecourse in 1964.

In recent decades, we have become accustomed to Britain's early juvenile races being won mostly by horses who ultimately turn out not to be of a particularly high class. It is not obvious why this should be, as for many years these races were often won by horses who turned out to be much better than merely precocious juveniles. Furthermore, in other countries it is still not uncommon to find some of the very best horses out early in the spring of their first season. One notable recent example was Dawn Approach (Ire) (New Approach {Ire}) whose trainer/breeder Jim Bolger sent him out to win Ireland's first juvenile race of 2012 before putting together a terrific career whose highlights also included victories in the G2 Coventry S., G1 National S. and G1 Dewhurst S. at two and the G1 2000 Guineas and G1 St. James's Palace S. as a 3-year-old in 2013.

Had Dawn Approach made a winning debut in March 2012 at Doncaster rather than The Curragh, he would obviously have ranked as the most distinguished Brocklesby winner of the modern era. He would not, though, have counted as its greatest winner of all time. That honour is held (and is almost certain to be held forever) by Donovan (GB) (Galopin {GB}) who, trained at Heath House in Newmarket by George Dawson for his breeder the 6th Duke of Portland, raised the curtain on a great career by making a winning debut in the Brocklesby in 1888. It is often suggested that getting a horse out early in his 2-year-old season, when the horse is clearly still far from mature, might reduce his chances of putting together a full career. Donovan is a classic reminder that that need not be the case.

The Brocklesby was the first of Donovan's 13 races at two, 11 of which he won, displaying such excellence that he ended the campaign as ante-post favourite for the following year's Derby. His 10 subsequent 2-year-old victories came in the Portland Plate at Leicester (run the following week and at the time a very prestigious race worth £6,000) the New (now Norfolk) S. at Ascot, two races at Stockbridge's summer meeting, the July S. at Newmarket's July Meeting, the Ham S. at Goodwood, and then at various Newmarket meetings the Buckenham S., the Hopeful S., the Middle Park Plate and the Dewhurst S.

In 1889 Donovan was unlucky not to win the Triple Crown, thanks to an unfortunate defeat on his resumption in the 2000 Guineas, when his jockey Fred Barrett, believing the race to be in the bag, dropped his hands a few strides from the post and consequently was caught by Tom Cannon on Enthusiast. Two weeks later Donovan was an easy winner of the Newmarket S. (with Enthusiast unplaced) and then he found it similarly straightforward to justify odds-on favouritism in the Derby. At Ascot he won Prince of Wales's S. and at Doncaster he strolled home in the St. Leger. He brought his season to close with two more easy wins later in the autumn, in the Lancashire Plate at Manchester and the Royal S. at Newmarket. Donovan finally retired to Worksop Manor Stud in 1891 with record prize-money earnings of £55,154, a figure which was eclipsed by Isinglass (GB) (Isonomy {GB}) in 1895. Donovan remained at Worksop Manor until suffering a fatal injury in a paddock accident in 1905. His name can still be found in the pedigrees of many notable horses, including Deep Impact (Jpn) in whose 10th generation he appears.

If Donovan's numerous victories confirm that an early debut need not prevent a great career, what can one say about another legend of the turf who was also out early as a 2-year-old, Red Rum? Traditionally, the first fixtures of the new season were Lincoln and then, later in the same week, Liverpool (which is now known as Aintree). The feature race at each meeting formed a leg of the 'Spring Double'. The Lincolnshire H. was obviously the first leg; as Liverpool was a mixed meeting (and remained that way into the 1970s, when it became National Hunt only) its leg of the Spring Double was its principal National Hunt contest, the Grand National, run on the Friday. Even without the extra hazards provided by the 30 huge fences in the Grand National, the competitiveness of these two huge-field handicaps (the Grand National had 66 runners in 1929, while in 1948 the Lincolnshire H. set what will presumably always be the record for the biggest field in a Flat race in Great Britain, 58) made the Spring Double a fiendishly difficult puzzle for punters to solve.

Red Rum, of course, is most famous for his three victories in the Grand National, in 1973, '74 and '77, as well as for his second places in the race in 1975 and '76. However, his first appearance at Liverpool came on Apr. 7, 1967, his trainer Tim Molony choosing to run him in a 2-year-old race there rather than in the Brocklesby at Lincoln. Aged 23 months and four days, he dead-heated for that race, the Thursby Plate, just three days shy of 10 years before his final and greatest triumph at the course.

It would be unrealistic to expect to see a Donovan (or a Red Rum) winning as a 2-year-old in the opening days of the 2022 turf season, but even so it is still not uncommon to see the Brocklesby won by a special horse. The race's best winner of the 1970s was Deep Diver (Ire) (Gulf Pearl {GB}) who went on to become a champion sprinter as 3-year-old in 1972 by virtue of winning the Nunthorpe S. and the Prix de l'Abbaye. Its star of the 1980s was Provideo (Ire) (Godswalk) who began his juvenile season in 1984 by winning the Brocklesby and eventually ended it with a record of 16 wins from 24 starts, earning Horse of the Year honours in the process. The winners of the 1990s were headed by the 1994 victor Mind Games (GB) who won a further six races including the G3 Norfolk S. at Royal Ascot, the G3 Palace House S. at Newmarket and the G2 Temple S. at Sandown (twice). He also finished second, beaten half a length, to Pivotal (GB) In the G2 King's Stand S. at Royal Ascot as a 4-year-old in 1996.

Two Brocklesby winners of the first decade of the current century stand out. In 2009 Hearts Of Fire (GB) (Firebreak {GB}), trained by former champion jockey Pat Eddery, began his juvenile campaign by winning at Doncaster and, months later, ended it with a sparkling international hat-trick consisting of victories in the Prix Francois Boutin at Deauville, the G3 Zukunfts-Rennen at Baden Baden and the G1 Gran Criterium at San Siro. The 2006 Brocklesby winner Spoof Master (Ire) never performed at that level but he did earn a little place in history even so. That year's race was run at Redcar as Doncaster was closed while its new grandstand was being built. By contesting the Brocklesby at Redcar, Spoof Master became the first runner for his sire Invincible Spirit (Ire); by winning it, he became the first winner for that great stallion. His exertions that day certainly didn't do Spoof Master any harm as he ultimately ran 65 times (winning 11) and raced in eight consecutive seasons.

The best Brocklesby winner of the past decade has been the 2016 winner The Last Lion (Ire) (Choisir {Aus}) who ended up running 10 times as a juvenile, his excellent campaign culminating in victory in the autumn in the G1 Middle Park S. at Newmarket. Last year's winner Chipotle (GB) (Havana Gold {Ire}) wasn't far behind that level of form, his three subsequent wins of 2021 including two black-type events, the Windsor Castle S. at Royal Ascot and the William Hill Two-Year-Old Trophy at Redcar.

Who will win this year's Brocklesby? A future Royal Ascot winner? Very possibly. Irrespective, though, of whatever he or she does go on subsequently to achieve, the Brocklesby winner will have begun a racing career in the best possible way, following in the footsteps of some terrific horses of the past, keeping a great racing tradition alive, giving hope and promise for the future, and ushering in an exciting new season of thrilling racing. At this time of year it all (bar our history and heritage) lies ahead of us.

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Rock Star Rachael Is Pure Gold On A Plus Tard

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 A Plus Tard found an extra gear when making light work of Cheltenham's famous hill to win going away by 15 lengths.

“It's the closest thing to feeling like a rock star you will ever feel without being able to sing,” said Blackmore. “It is just incredible to have people back and I feel very, very lucky.”

Twelve months ago at a distinctly different Festival with not even owners allowed on course to watch their horses, Blackmore had ended the week as the leading rider, setting a new first then by winning the Champion Hurdle on Honeysuckle (GB) (Sulamani {Ire}). A month later, another groundbreaking moment was recorded when Blackmore became the first woman to win the Grand National, sealing an extraordinary season for trainer Henry de Bromhead, for whom she is the principal rider.

Much pre-Festival chat had focused on de Bromhead's stable being out of form, but the Irishman returned to Cheltenham with his big guns blazing. Honeysuckle snared the Champion Hurdle for the second time and Bob Olinger (Ire) (Sholokhov {Ire}) took advantage of the desperate last-fence fall of Galopin Des Champs (Fr) (Timos {Ger}) in the G1 Turners Novices' Chase, but the best was saved for last with a repeat, albeit reversed, quinella in jump racing's blue riband.

With Blackmore moved to tears and struggling to find the words to convey her response to her historic victory, thoughts also turned to the late David Thompson of Cheveley Park Stud, whose decision to race a few jumpers for a bit of fun has been transformed into a phenomenally successful project. Thompson died in December 2020 but his wife Patricia, son Richard, and three grandsons were at Cheltenham to enjoy the plundering of National Hunt racing's biggest prize in their colours, which for decades have been more synonymous with top-class Flat runners.

“My father would be loving this,” said Richard Thompson. “He was behind the project and this horse was the first one he bought and was the last one he saw win before he died. He watched the Gold Cup for many years, and to win it is incredible. It's a fantastic day for the family. That was all class. We know he's got so much quality and Rachael rode the perfect race. It's the Gold Cup, anything can happen, but it looked so smooth.”

With Asterion Forlonge (Fr) (Coastal Path {GB}) cutting out much of the early running and previous Gold Cup runner-up Santini (GB) (Milan {GB}) and Aye Right (Ire) (Yeats {Ire}) taking close order through much of the first circuit, Blackmore had A Plus Tard buried away in mid-division, biding their time before the main contenders started to lay down serious challenges as the field descended the hill with three left to jump.

A Plus Tard coasted into contention, but initially had no obvious way through a tightly packed throng of horses ahead of him, including Minella Indo and another previous winner, Al Boum Photo (Fr) (Buck's Boum {Fr}). As members of that leading group started to surrender, Blackmore's patience was rewarded when a gap opened up for A Plus Tard to breeze between Protektorat (Fr) (Saint Des Saints {Fr}) and Al Boum Photo to launch his bid for glory.

“The wall of horses in front of me made sure I didn't get there too soon,” said Blackmore. “He felt very happy throughout the race this year and jumped fantastically, and I was able to take him back a little bit everywhere.

“Thankfully he was just really good over the last two and he picked up incredibly over the last. It is an incredible feeling when you do that over the back of the last at Cheltenham. I was taking my luck and we got the split.”

The modest rider refers to luck regularly, and indeed just as hers was in on Tuesday when steering the peerless Honeysuckle to a second Champion Hurdle victory, Blackmore hit the floor hard in the next race when brought down with Telmesomethinggirl (Ire) (Stowaway {Ire}).

Luck, like form, comes and goes in racing, but class, as they say, is permanent. And it would be hard to find a classier act in the sport right now than the 32-year-old Blackmore. Revered and respected by her peers, a heroine to so many youngsters watching on in the hope that they can follow in her wake, she is everything that racing needs, especially at a time when it so often finds itself on the front pages for all the wrong reasons.

“I just feel so lucky. I just don't know how or why I am so lucky to be in the position that I'm in,” she said as she composed herself in the winner's enclosure. “Not every jockey gets to be in this position. Last year I had the choice between the horses who came first and second in the Gold Cup–who is that jockey that gets to do that? Thankfully this year I was on the right one.”

Blackmore continued, “I'm very lucky to be getting to ride these kind of horses. Henry is just an incredible trainer and he has had another one-two in the Gold Cup, that is just incredible.

“I can't believe it's not even 12 months since the Grand National happened, and what with Honeysuckle this week winning her Champion Hurdle, I wish I had better English to describe how I feel, to be honest, as it is very overwhelming. This really is a magical place.”

Describing his stable jockey as a “savage rider”, de Bromhead added, “It's incredible to be involved and I'm just delighted for her.

“Rachael said to me about three weeks ago that she was kicking herself [about last year's Gold Cup] and she wanted to ride him to use his pace. I said to her to do whatever she wanted, and she started banging on about what she was doing as we were about to leg her up. I just said 'you're the boss'. That was it, and coming down the hill and I thought she was very brave and brilliant. It was an incredible ride.”

He continued, “It's been a ridiculous year. Everyone's been telling me how bad my horses are going, so we've had a few bad months as well. Even a couple of runners this week have made me wonder if there's a problem, but then you see Honey and this guy–they were unreal.

“One thing I have to say is to get the roar this year is fantastic. It was amazing to win it last year but with the crowd here it's just a different league.”

The Nice Guy…

It was Ireland's day on Friday, with all seven races falling to visiting trainers. Henry de Bromhead may have claimed the headlines by landing the big one for the second year running, but much of the day belonged to Willie Mullins, who celebrated five winners to take his tally to a record-breaking 10 for the Festival of 2022. Mullins was already the winningmost trainer at Cheltenham and his incredible Festival record now stands at 88 winners.

First blood was drawn by the burgeoning young talent of Vauban (Fr) in the JCB Triumph Hurdle, now a dual Grade 1 winner over hurdles for his young sire Galiway (GB) who could yet revert to the Flat, with the Melbourne Cup mooted as a possible target post-race by owner Rich Ricci.

Next up, State Man (Fr) (Doctor Dino {Fr}) justified favouritism in the fiercely competitive G3 McCoy Contractors County Hurdle, sealing Paul Townend's leading rider title for the Festival with five wins.

Mullins hadn't finished yet, but three different jockeys were deployed to claim his next three wins: Sean O'Keeffe scored his first Festival success on the horse who could have been named for his trainer, The Nice Guy (Ire) (Fame And Glory {GB}), in the G1 Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle. The race brought joy for owner Malcolm Denmark, celebrating his first Festival winner since Monsignor (Ire) won the G1 Royal & SunAlliance Novices' Hurdle in 2000, but it was marred by the fatal injury between the last two flights for Ginto (Fr) (Walk In The Park {Ire}).

Mullins's son Patrick, one of Ireland's leading amateur riders, claimed victory in the final strides aboard Billaway (Ire) (Well Chosen {Ire}) in an important race hitherto missing from his impressive record, the St James's Place Foxhunters Chase, informally known as the amateurs' Gold Cup. Lastly, it was the turn of Mark Walsh to drive the game grey mare Elimay (Fr) (Montmartre {Fr}) home to glory in the G2 Mrs Paddy Power Mares' Chase, in which she was runner-up last year.

Ireland's clean sweep was completed by the Joseph O'Brien-trained Banbridge (Ire) (Doyen {GB}) winning the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys' Hurdle in the hands of Mark McDonagh for major National Hunt supporter Ronnie Bartlett, whose Galvin (Ire) (Gold Well {GB}) had earlier finished fourth in the Gold Cup.

While it was Irish-trained horses who figured most prominently on the final day of the Festival, a number of the key winners had been bred in France. Notably, A Plus Tard was bred by Henri and Antonia Devin at their hugely successful Haras du Mesnil near Le Mans. They had extra cause to enjoy their day at Cheltenham as the County Hurdle winner State Man is a son of their resident stallion Doctor Dino, the most sought-after jumps sire in France, as is the Triumph Hurdle runner-up Fil Dor (Fr), who is also a Devin-bred.

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Pour Moi Filly Tops Festival Sale At £370,000

Henry de Bromhead celebrated his two Grade 1 winners at Cheltenham this week by adding the top lot of the Tattersalls Cheltenham Festival Sale to his string.

The daughter of Pour Moi (Ire), named Kudasheva (Ire), was an eye-catching winner on debut in a point-to-point in Ireland on March 6 and brought a final bid of £370,000. Offered as lot 18 by Pat Doyle's Suirview Stables, the 4-year-old is out of a Hernando (Ire) half-sister to Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Don Cossack (Ger) (Sholokhov {Ire}).

Gordon Elliott will take charge of two of the sale's leading lots after going to £350,000 for Better Days Ahead (Ire) (Milan {GB}), a 4-year-old gelding sold by Warren Ewing of Bernice Stables, whose previous graduates include Tuesday's track-record-breaking Constitution Hill (GB) (Blue Bresil {FR}), winner of the G1 Supreme Novices' Hurdle. Lot 12 was another recent winner from his sole start at the end of February and he will race for Noel and Valerie Moran of Bective Stud.

Elliott also bought lot 5, the 5-year-old gelding Stellar Story (Ire) (Shantou), for £310,000 from Donnchadh Doyle's Monbeg Stables.

The sale, which took place in the parade ring after racing, turned over £3,353,000 in just over an hour for the 23 lots sold at an average of £145,783.

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