Most Impressive Wins At Cheltenham Festival So Far
The Cheltenham Festival comes to a close this Friday and has certainly been an historic event, and not just because it has been the first festival in history without fans, but due to some of the historic wins that we have seen during the festival already. The festival, as usual, has been dominated by the Irish horses, jockeys and trainers and with the Gold Cup looming on Friday, we look at some of the most emphatic wins of the festival so far this week.
One of the most impressive wins this week was on the opening race of the week in which Willie Mullins-trained favourite Appreciate It claims his first of many wins for the festival. The 8/11 favourite ridden by Paul Townend totally outclassed his other rivals in the race and put on a dominant display in which he won by 24 lengths, one of the biggest margins wins in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle ever. For Pleasure, the 50/1 outsider set the pace in the race, but it was Townend who moved Appreciate It through the gears and up the hill and got the Mullins stable off to a great start.
[Image: Racing Post]
Another big win from the festival this week was when Allaho took apart a very high-quality looking field in the Ryanair Chase on Thursday. Rachel Blackmore, who has been one of the most impressive jockeys throughout the whole festival, rode Allaho with Min the stable mate through the early race but eventually pushed on and won in style, coasting to a win by 12 lengths in the end. Allaho, the 3/1 favourites had many doubters before the race even started but put all them doubters to bed in the Ryanair this year.
And finally, the feature race from the first day saw heavy favourite Honeysuckle proves the punters right as Blackmore added the Champion Hurdle to her cabinet of wins and made history by becoming the first female jockey to do so. Honeysuckle, the top class mare race clear ahead of all rivals to claim the £189,911 in prize money and ensured that the 11/10 favourite improved on her 11 unbeaten race record in the Grade 1 contest.
[Image: Sky Sports]
Suzanne Ashton, Founder of Everything Horse (Est, 2012), has a BA Hons in Marketing Management and a Diploma in Equine Science. Suzanne has ridden and owned horses all her life and has twelve years of experience in marketing, writing, design, SEO, and website creation.