Two
of the showpiece events, the Champion Hurdle and the Cheltenham Gold
Cup, proved anti-climactic, at least as far as the market leaders
were concerned, but the Cheltenham Festival in 2019 still produced
four days of exhilarating racing. Indeed, Espoir D’Allen may have
been sent off at 16/1 against the likes of Buveur D’Air, Apple’s
Jade and Laurina in the Champion Hurdle, but recorded an
authoritative, 15-length win and looked every inch a top-class
hurdler. He was one of five winners during the week for leading owner
John P. McManus.

Similarly,
in the ‘Blue Riband’ event, Al Boum Photo was only third choice
of four entries from Willie Mullins’ Co. Carlow stable, but the
seven-year-old fared by far the best of the quartet, travelling
sweetly under jockey Paul Townend and staying on strongly from the
final fence to beat Anibale Fly by 2½ lengths. The 12/1 chance was a
first Cheltenham Gold Cup winner for Mullins, who had saddled the
runner-up on six previous occasions and later admitted that he had
‘probably resigned’ himself to never winning the race.

Elsewhere,
it was ‘business as usual’ for Altior, who won the Queen Mother
Champion Chase for the second year running and, in so doing, equalled
the record of 18 consecutive victories. That said, on officially
‘soft’ going, the 4/11 chance had to work a little harder than
usual under Nico De Boinville – leading jockey of the week with
four winners – knuckling down well in the closing stages to beat
Politologue by 1¾ lengths after being narrowly headed at the final
fence. The remaining ‘championship’ race, the Stayers’ Hurdle,
fell to a new champion, Paisley Park, who justified favouritism to
cap a brilliant, unbeaten season for trainer Emma Lavelle and owner
Andrew Gemmell.

Other
headline-makers at Prestbury Park included Frodon and Bryony Frost,
who became the first female jockey to record a Grade One victory at
the Cheltenham Festival when partnering Paul Nicholls’
seven-year-old to a game, 1¼-length win in the Ryanair Chase. Bryony
Frost was joined in the winners’ enclosure by Rachael Blackmore
(twice) and Lizzie Kelly, as female jockeys collectively recorded
four wins at the Festival for the second year running.