Gold Cup: Minella Indo wins historic treble at Cheltenham

 

Minella Indo emerged victorious in a fantastic Cheltenham Gold Cup under rider Jack Kennedy to deny Blackmore’s A PlusTard in a 1-2 for trainer Bromhead.

The win completed a historic treble for the Irish horse trainer, who also won the Champion Chase and Champion Hurdle.

The 9-1 chance Indo emerged victorious by only one and a quarter length with 2-time champion Al Boum Photo in third place.

Blackmore, who happens to be the top 2021 Cheltenham rider with six victories - was hoping to emerge the first female horse jockey to win.

Selecting A PlusTard ahead of Minella Indo was perhaps trailblazing Blackmore's only wrong choice of the racing week, but it was indeed an emotional triumph for Kennedy.

The 21-year-old jockey, who has sustained a broken leg on four occasions in his brief career said: "I can't believe it. This is what I have dreamed of as a child,"

"It could always be lot worse - broken legs and broken collarbones will heal. It's obviously unfortunate, but you have to get on with it.

"It's definitely the best day of my life. I know I'm still young, but I suppose I have been in the position where I could have been winning them for a couple of years, so to get it done is brilliant."

Happy De Bromhead, who emerged victorious at Queen Mother Champion Chase with Put the Kettle On, on Wednesday, was left to absorb what he had achieved at Cheltenham.

The 48-year-old who trains his horse at Knockeen said: "It's all come together here and it's fantastic,"

"To win a Cheltenham Gold Cup is something you dream about. I think I'm still in my hotel, it's Monday evening and I'm about wake-up and nothing's even started yet. That's where I'm at at the moment, it's brilliant."

Native River, the 2018 winner, came fourth and Frodo emerged fifth, while last year's RSA Chase victor Champ and the runner-up at 2020 Gold Cup,Santini, pulled up, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise as BoyleSports horse racing already included them in their odds.

Blackmore was handed a 2-day suspension for making use of her whip above the authorized level from turning in.

A total number of twelve runners went to post, and Bryony Frost was the early leader from the front on the 6-time Cheltenham victorFrodon.

The 2019 and 2020 winner Al Boum Photo was one of many traveling fluidly, along with his Willie Mullins-trained mate Kemboy, as the race evolved.

Blackmore, who emerged the first female rider to win the Champion Hurdle after triumphing with Honeysuckle during the week, was another going pretty well on her A PlusTard.

Frodo started to fade two fences from home and Minella Indo, placed second to Champ at Cheltenham in 2020, overtook and could not be caught even up the hill.

Cheltenham Festival-winning jockey, Katie Walsh, said on BBC Radio 5 Live that Jack Kennedy is a great rider and has been riding out his heart out. Although he had suffered horrible injuries in the past but is a fantastic Irish talent who deserved the win.

The last day of the 2021 Cheltenham Festival followed the same pattern of the last three days with Irish horses taking full control.

Paul Nicholls - The Festival

Cheltenham Gold Cup 2013

The 2013 Cheltenham Gold Cup, sponsored by Betfred, featured nine runners and was won, in convincing style, by Bobs Worth, trained by Nicky Henderson and ridden by Barry Geraghty. In so doing, the 11/4 favourite was completing a notable Cheltenham Festival treble, having won the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle in 2011 and the RSA Chase in 2012.

Bobs Worth ran just twice during the 2012/13 season, readily accounting for Tidal Bay by 3¼ lengths in the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury on his seasonal reappearance in December before lining up in the Cheltenham Gold Cup 104 days later. His main opposition came from stable companion, and King George VI Chase winner, Long Run, who started 7/2 second favourite, and Betfair Chase winner Silviniaco Conti and Irish Hennessy Gold Cup winner Sir Des Champs, who were sent off at 4/1 joint third favourites.

Early on the second circuit, Long Run was in the lead, jumping well, although hotly pursued by Sir Des Champs in a close second. Silviniaco Conti fell at the third last, when still travelling well and, in so doing, hampered Bobs Worth, who was 8 lengths down at that point. Briefly, it appeared that Long Run and Sir Des Champs may have the race between them, but Bobs Worth came with a strong run approaching the second last, jumped the final fence in front and powered clear on the run-in to beat Sir Des Champs by 7 lengths, with Long Run a further 2¾ lengths in third.

Winning trainer Nicky Henderson had always expressed his concern that Bobs Worth would be better on good going, rather than the prevailing soft going. That sentiment was echoed by a nonetheless delighted Barry Geraghty, who said of Bobs Worth, “He’s a great attitude, he struggled on the ground but he kept fighting. I was hunting and I knew coming into the second last I would win. He's as game as a lion and he loves the job.”

Hailed by Henderson as “amazing, an absolute legend”, Bobs Worth was retired from racing in 2016 and has since enjoyed a happy retirement with Tracy Vigors at Hillwood Stud.

Cheltenham Festival 2021 - Ones to Watch

 

Oddschecker columnist Andy Holding and racing journalist Ed Quigley  discuss ones to watch in the lead up to the 2021 Cheltenham Festival

Cheltenham Festival 2019

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.