TopSpec Trainer of the Quarter - Henry de Bromhead
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By Lissa Oliver
At what could be described as the only Irish race meeting held in Britain, where 23 of the 28 Cheltenham Festival races fell to Irish trainers, one Irish trainer in particular led the way. County Waterford-based Henry de Bromhead became the first trainer to achieve the historic feat of winning the Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase and the Gold Cup in the same year.
Add to those the Triumph Hurdle, Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle and the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle, and it’s little wonder de Bromhead is now looking forward to ‘catching his breath’ while quarantining back home in Ireland.
The amazing week began for the Knockeen team on day one of the Festival, when Honeysuckle powered away under Rachael Blackmore to land the Unibet Champion Hurdle. De Bromhead says of the mare, ‘She’s pretty laid back. She’s really straightforward; she likes her routine, and she’s lovely to have around the place.’
Having watched her success from the track, de Bromhead claimed it as his lucky spot and so it proved—cheering home two more winners on the Wednesday that Bob Olinger got the day’s Gr1 tally started in the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle, under jockey of the moment Rachael Blackmore. Then de Bromhead became the first trainer to send out a mare to win the Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase, with Put The Kettle On, under Aidan Coleman.
‘We are very lucky to have good mares like them,’ de Bromhead says, ‘and getting tremendous support from our owners. I thought she had a chance, but on ratings I thought she might struggle a bit; but I hoped she would have a squeak.’
The fairer sex again came up trumps for de Bromhead on the Thursday, Telmesomethinggirl, Rachael Blackmore up, leading home stablemate Magic Daze in the Grade 2 Mares’ Novices' Hurdle to give the stable a one-two. De Bromhead said on the day, ‘I’m delighted for Rachael. She is such a good rider and an ultimate professional, and she is brilliant to work with. She earns everything she gets.’
With the week just getting better and better, Quilixios became the fifth winner for the Knockeen team and the fourth Gr1 winner in the JCB Triumph Hurdle, again under Blackmore. ‘He jumped well and did everything right, de Bromhead enthused. ‘I'm delighted for the Thompsons and Cheveley Park—they're great supporters of ours. Rachael was brilliant on him and all credit to Gordon Elliott and his team—the horse looked amazing coming down to us, and we've done very little. It's more down to them than us. He's just a lovely horse to do anything with. He'll be a lovely chaser in time, I'd say.’
Then came the grand finale—the WellChild Cheltenham Gold Cup, and another de Bromhead one-two. Minella Indo and young Jack Kennedy led home stablemate A Plus Tard and to complete an historic hat-trick. ‘It's massive,’ de Bromhead told the press. ‘I can't tell you what it means to win it, or just to win any of these races. I feel like I'm going to wake up and it will be Monday evening! To do this is a credit to everyone that's working with us; we couldn't do any of it without our clients supporting us. They give us the opportunity to buy these good horses, and I just feel extremely lucky.
‘We felt we had the team exactly where we wanted them heading over to Cheltenham, but I've thought that in other years, too, when we haven't done so well. I wasn't confident about any of them winning. They all seemed okay and happy in themselves, and I was just hoping that they would be able to do themselves justice.
‘The whole week was just surreal from start to finish, from Honeysuckle to the Gold Cup and everything in between. It's magic, and I don't think it's going to sink in fully for quite some time. It's the stuff you dream about.’
