#Grace Hurdle

By Andrew Asquith, Saturday 14 January 2023 Posted in: Cheltenham Festival Tips Andrew Asquith looks ahead to the 2023 Champion Hurdle. The Champion Hurdle is the main race on day one of the Cheltenham Festival and this year's renewal revolves around one horse, and one horse only, Constitution Hill, who produced the best performance by a novice…

Honeysuckle and Rachael Blackmore will aim to bounce back from her first defeat at Fairyhouse to win a fourth consecutive Irish Champion Hurdle This year's Dublin Racing Festival looks set to play host to a star-studded line-up after early entries for the two-day Irish calendar highlight at Leopardstown were revealed on Thursday. Eight Grade 1s…

Locked alongside Apple's Jade, Limestone Lad and Solerina on three victories in the race, the two-time Champion Hurdle victor was looking to create history and become the first four-time winner of the Grade One contest as she started another campaign on familiar territory. Heading into her fifth year in training, the engine appeared to be purring…

They say that no success or defeat is necessarily final, but Honeysuckle needed to send a message to the precocious young pretender on her traditional Fairyhouse reappearance, and for the first time in her glorious career she was found wanting. Bidding for what would have been a historic fourth Bar One Hatton's Grace Hurdle, she led two out and…

The Druids Nephew has won the 2:40 USB Handicap Chase at the 2015 Cheltenham Festival. Annacotty made the early running in the third race of the day, tracked by Grand Jesture, with just 20 lengths separating the whole field after a circuit. But as Tony McCoy's Pendra faded after the last hurdle, 8/1 shot The Druids Nephew raced clear to deliver the…

Delta Work has become a little bit of a forgotten horse. True, he was well beaten in the Ladbrokes Champion Chase on his seasonal debut, but he is never at his best on his seasonal return, and he reportedly came home lame that day, so you can allow him that. Gordon Elliott's horse was one of the top staying novice chasers last season. He beat Le…

The 2022-23 jumps racing season is in full flow, with all roads already leading to the Cheltenham Festival in March as the stars of the show begin to be turned out by the big-name trainers in a bid to get them in tip-top shape for the four-day Prestbury Park thriller next year. Not all the top horses have managed to hit the ground running, however,…

Horse racing fans are in dreamland this weekend as the Dublin Racing Festival takes centre stage at Leopardstown. The cream of Irish national hunt racing will strut their stuff and pecking orders will be established with Cheltenham on the horizon. If you need an idea of how good the racing is today then you only to need to look at the second race…

HONEYSUCKLE has been crowned Horse of the Year at a prestigious awards do - the day after losing for the first time in her amazing career. Kenny Alexander's wondermare could finish only third when bidding for a record fourth Hatton's Grace Hurdle at Fairyhouse on Sunday. Gordon Elliott's shock 20-1 winner Teahupoo crashed the party - meaning…

We posed some questions to ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence research system that has been making headlines all over the world for its incredible ability to give convincing answers to requests on a mind-boggling array of subjects, and we wanted to see what this super AI could do with racing. Open AI, the company that developed Chat GPT, says its…

RUBY WALSH is sweet on the chances of Honeysuckle retaining her Champion Hurdle title. The brilliant mare is unbeaten in 16 career starts - but last season's Supreme Novices' Hurdle winner Constitution Hill is ahead of her in the Champion Hurdle betting. That has come as a surprise to many, including legendary jockey turned pundit Walsh. Nicky…

If it is to be the beginning of the end for Honeysuckle, Sunday was a day to remember for hugely promising rider Michael O'Sullivan, who showed calmness beyond his years to get Marine Nationale home in front and claim a first Grade One win in the Bar One Racing Royal Bond Novice Hurdle - typically one of the most informative novice events in…

THE racing world will be focused on Fairyhouse on Sunday as super mare Honeysuckle, the dual Champion Hurdle winner who remains unbeaten in her 16-race career, makes her seasonal reappearance in the Bar One Racing Hatton's Grace Hurdle, in which she is bidding for a record fourth victory. And it also at the Co. Meath track where Newsboy's nap…

Honeysuckle seems to have spent her whole career making history and yet another milestone will be reached if she makes it win number 17 here. Apple's Jade, Limestone Lad and Solerina all completed a hat-trick of Hatton's Grace Hurdle wins in their stellar careers, but none of them managed to win a fourth. Honeysuckle would break more new ground if…

Nicky Henderson's Constitution Hill is odds-on to take Honeysuckle's crown at Cheltenham in March following his Fighting Fifth romp last Saturday - despite the fact Honeysuckle is already a dual Champion Hurdle winner and yet to meet with defeat in 16 outings. The Henry de Bromhead-trained eight-year-old is tied with Limestone Lad, Solerina and…

Honeysuckle: heads a quality field as she bids for a fourth consecutive Hatton's Grace Hurdle Honeysuckle will face seven opponents when she bids to eclipse Limestone Lad, Apple's Jade and Solerina to become the first four-time winner of the Bar One Racing Hatton's Grace Hurdle (2.30) at Fairyhouse on Sunday. Henry de Bromhead's star mare will make…

THE Champion Hurdle is one of the big races at Cheltenham Festival. And with it coming up in just a few weeks, the ante post mark is hotting up nicely. Henry de Bromhead won it last year with the unbeaten Honeysuckle. Rachael Blackmore rode the superstar mare to victory by more than six lengths. Here, SunSport looks at the current ante post market…

Greaneteen: won the Haldon Gold Cup but can he strike once again in the Tingle Creek? Monday With the exception of Wolverhampton's Saturday evening card, which was restricted to riders who rode fewer than 30 winners in 2021, there had been an absence of all-weather racing in Britain for just over a week as the season took a short break. However,…

BOOKIES think Constitution Hill will miss this weekend's Fighting Fifth - after the Ascot fiasco. Trainer Nicky Henderson said there was no chance he was going to run his sensational Supreme winner on good ground last weekend. That immediately raised the prospect of a head-to-head with stablemate Epatante at Newcastle this Saturday. But…

Henry de Bromhead has hailed Honeysuckle an "all-time great" no matter what happens when young pretenders Constitution Hill and State Man challenge over the coming months. The trainer is well aware of the whizz-kids arriving on the scene this season, but thinks his unbeaten wondermare still holds all the aces in the Champion Hurdle pot. The…

A Plus Tard, Bob Olinger, Envoi Allen, Honeysuckle and Minella Indo! Find out the latest update from Henry de Bromhead on plans for his stable stars, as well as his thoughts on their recent performances. Henry de Bromhead remains keen to head to next month's Savills Chase at Leopardstown with A Plus Tard after so far failing to find an obvious…

The dramatic late falls of Annie Power, in 2015, and Benie Des Dieux, in 2019, reputedly saved bookmakers many millions as both were the last leg of numerous accumulators featuring short-priced runners for punters. This year's meeting once again sees a number of horses chalked up at cramped odds, but will they be bankers or blowouts? Sporting Life…

The dual Champion Hurdle winner has contested the same races over the last two seasons, starting off by winning the Hatton's Grace at Fairyhouse, then landing the Irish Champion Hurdle en route to Cheltenham and rounding off at the Punchestown Festival. Trainer Henry de Bromhead does not plan to deviate from her traditional starting point this…

A regular feature at the end of any sporting year is the presentation of awards in recognition of success throughout the season. Last week saw Irish jumps jockey Rachael Blackmore collect four prestigious awards in the space of four days. Horse Racing I reland Irish Racing Hero 2021, Irish Times Sportswoman of the Year 2021, RTÉ Sportsperson of the…

The Henry de Bromhead-trained Honeysuckle will be bidding for an unprecedented fourth win in the Grade One showpiece on December 4, which would see her go one better than three-time winners Limestone Lad, Solerina and Apple's Jade. Rachael Blackmore's mount was last seen winning at Punchestown in April, after adding a second Champion Hurdle at…

Finished second in the Galway Plate last year, just a length behind his stable companion Royal Rendezvous. He is 3lb higher now than he was then, but he is a classy chaser, he is four for four this season, and he warmed up for this nicely with an impressive victory at Tramore last time. We haven't seen him since he finished third behind Blue Lord…

Unbeaten Honeysuckle is on course for an Irish Champion Hurdle hat-trick bid at the Dublin Racing Festival next month, connections have confirmed. The brilliant mare won last year's renewal by 10 lengths before going on to justify favouritism in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham. She made it 13 wins from 13 starts when seeing off Ronald Pump in the…

Just five runners went to post for the two-and-a-quarter-mile contest but it did not lack intrigue, with Darver Star - runner-up to Honeysuckle in the 2020 Irish Champion Hurdle and third in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham the following month - opposed by three-time Grade One winner Abacadabras. The Gordon Elliott-trained Abacadabras was the 4-6…

FOLLOWING a 2020 Cheltenham Festival to remember, Henry de Bromhead will return to Prestbury Park this March with another crack squad. The trainer won six races at least year's festival - including the Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Champions Chase and Cheltenham Gold Cup. Though long respected as a master trainer, De Bromhead's success at last…

Connections of the amazing Honeysuckle have admitted to feeling the nerves ahead her bid for a record-equalling third victory in the Baroneracing.com Hatton's Grace Hurdle on Sunday. Henry de Bromhead's charge will try to become the fourth horse to complete a hat-trick in the Fairyhouse feature after the popular Limestone Lad and two other…

Six years ago this month one of the most successful partnerships in Irish jumps racing was abruptly ended when owners Gigginstown House Stud and Willie Mullins parted company after the trainer increased his training fees from the autumn of 2016. 'I put my fees up for the first time in ten years and Gigginstown chose not pay them' Mullins said at…

A 10-length winner at Leopardstown's Dublin Racing Festival last year, having rather scrambled home from Darver Star in 2020, Henry De Bromhead's superstar became the first horse to complete a hat-trick of wins in the Grade One February feature since Hurricane Fly. Honeysuckle was far superior to her four Sunday rivals on all known form and had…