F EATURE HENRY DE BROMHEAD
“We go therewith a freshmindset. Last yearwas an incredible year, but it doesn’t mean that it’s going to happen again”
finallymade it to racing’s top table, it has been the culmination of a steady journey to the summit for the Irishman,who certainly has plenty of racing pedigree. His father Harrywas a racehorse trainerwhomixed trainingwith farming and is perhaps best known for winning the Pertemps Final with Fissure Seal in 1993. When the opportunity presented itself for son Henry to take over hewas initially reluctant, but explains it was ultimately something he felt he had to try. He said: “I was always mad keen on racing but I’d seen howhard itwas formy father. I had a firm look at all the various options in the racing industry and probably tried to avoid training for awhile! “I spent some timeworking for SirMark Prescott and at Coolmore,whichwas interesting, but eventually I felt itwas something I had to go and trymyself. My father
“unbelievable” and “hard to comprehend”, he said. In truth, the cherry on the top of the icing on a very luxurious cakewas still to comewhen, around eight hours later, Minello Indo led home stablemate APlus Tard for a 1-2 in Jump racing’s most prestigious race, the CheltenhamGold Cup. “Itwas just incredible and something you dreamof,” he tells me as we sit down to reminisce one year on. “You just need everything to go right for aweek like that to happen. It’s funny, as we had plenty of others thatwere probably a little unlucky and things just didn’t quite work out for them. Itwas just one of thoseweeks where things were landing right for us.” Last year’s Festival got off to the perfect start for de Bromhead,with Honeysuckle’s victory in the first ‘Championship race’ of theweek, the Unibet Champion
was ill at the time and he said hewas going to finish up, so itwas just a case of either giving it a go or not.” Starting outwith a teamof just 12 horses, never in his wildest dreams did de Bromhead envisage being where he is now. He said: “You dreamof winning these races that I’vewonwhen you start off but I don’t think I ever thought I would do it. “When I started the aimwas just to train awinner andwe
Hurdle. And like plenty before him, getting that firstwinner on the board calmed the nerves more than anything. He explained: “Therewas definitely a sense of relief when Honeysucklewon the Unibet Champion Hurdle. “I always go hoping to get onewinner and anything else is a bonus. Just getting your horses there is a big part of it.” While last year’s Festival might be seen by some as the moment de Bromhead
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