THURSDAY’S CARDHASADISTINCTLY IRISHFEELTO IT WITHTHE RYANAIRCHASEANDTHE PADDYPOWERSTAYERS’ HURDLE BOTH SPONSOREDBY IRISHBUSINESSES
in fairness to Jonathan Moore he gave me every little bit of information he had about the horse. Credit to him as he knew he wasn’t in good shape this morning and he stood himself down and that’s the mark of a great man that wants everything to go well. “It’s fantastic to get my first winner at Cheltenham and being a Grade One as well. I’m really enjoying what I’ve got out of it today but I’d say two per cent of the success is down to me and 98 per cent is Jonny, Gavin and all the team.” Thursday’s card is complemented by a supporting line-up of the Grade One Marsh Novices’ Chase and the Grade Two Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle, offering plenty of chances for Britain to exact equine revenge over the Irish. However, win, lose or draw, Day Three of the 2022 Cheltenham Festival is definitely St Patrick’s Day.
female rider ever to win the Festival’s Leading Jockey award, with six winners. But it was a lesser-known trainer, Gavin Cromwell, who was celebrating Stayers’ Hurdle glory within the hour when Flooring Porter made every yard to win a race which requires a unique combination of class and stamina. As with most races at The Festival there was a fascinating sub-plot to the narrative. In the saddle was Danny Mullins who had only been drafted in at the eleventh hour to replace the unfortunate Jonathan Moore, who stood himself down earlier that day due to injury. The rest, as they say, is history and Mullins could barely believe that he had ridden his first ever Festival winner. Speaking afterwards in the post-race press conference he beamed: “It’s fantastic. He is a very good horse. I got the call-up maybe an hour before and
jockey to win a Grade One race at The Festival over fences in the process. And there was not a dry eye in the house when Paisley Park went on to win the Stayers’ Hurdle for trainer Emma Lavelle. While Paisley Park is a hugely popular horse in his own right, it was the story of his owner Andrew Gemmell, who has been blind since birth and relies solely on the commentary to follow races, which racegoers and those watching at home really connected with. While the two winners in 2019 were both trained in Britain, it was Irish eyes which were smiling in 2021, albeit at a Festival which was being staged behind closed doors. A brilliant front-running performance from Allaho won the Ryanair Chase for trainer Willie Mullins and jockey Rachael Blackmore, contributing towards the latter’s own slice of history in becoming the first
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