nh racing
Old friends, new stars Aisling Crowe reports from the Dublin Racing Festival which saw the amazing Honeysuckle win her third Grade 1 Irish Champion Hurdle, Chacun Pour Soi his third Dublin Chase, while the impressive Conflated and Vauban put themselves on the big stage
Vauban (Galiway) jumping to Grade 1 glory and winning his first race over hurdle on his second start
T
HE RETURN OF CROWDS TO RACING in Ireland was celebrated in raucous fashion at the Dublin Racing Festival with fans releasing the pent-up tensions and frustrations of two years away from the track. The opportunity to acclaim racing’s queens Honeysuckle and Rachael Blackmore after their third Chanelle Pharma Irish Champion Hurdle (G1) was one that the Leopardstown crowd could not pass up, and
20
www.internationalthoroughbred.net
the unbeaten pair were serenaded off the course and into the winners’ enclosure by awed fans. Honeysuckle, the British-bred daughter of Sulamani, has captured the hearts of racing’s public alongside her record-making jockey and the unbeaten duo are the brightest stars in racing, and possibly Irish sport, right now. The Champion Hurdle heroine was joined as a triple Dublin Racing Festival Grade 1 winner by Chacun Pour Soi, who
recorded his third Dublin Chase triumph in his customarily exciting manner for trainer Willie Mullins and owner Rich Ricci. Sir Gerhard, victorious in the Grade 1 Tattersalls Ireland Novice Hurdle in the Cheveley Park silks, is another whose pedigree and race record are familiar to readers as the Champion Bumper winner of 2021 has been something of a standout since he began his racing career. Away from those bright lights familiar to stargazers of racing’s galaxy, some nebulae
