Category: Horses

Energumene was retired from racing, as a 12-year-old, on April 28, 2026 after finishing a remote third to stable companion Il Etait Temps in the Champion Chase at Punchestown. All told, the son of useful jumps sire Denham Red won 14 of his 23 starts under National Hunt Rules, including 12 of his 20 steeplechases, and amassed over £1.2 million in prize money.

Owned by Tony Bloom, chairman of Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, and trained by Willie Mullins, Energumene won six times at Grade 1 level, including back-to-back victories in the aforementioned Champion Chase in 2022 and 2023 However, to the wider racing public, he is best known for his exploits at the Cheltenham Festival, where he also won the Queen Mother Champion Chase in both 2022 and 2023. Indeed, following his retirement, Mullins’ stable jockey Paul Mullins, who rode him in all bar one of his starts over regulation fences, said of Energumene, “He was a star of a horse. He was a joy and will be hard to replace.”

On his first appearance at the Cheltenham Festival, Energumene was sent off 5/2 second-favourite for the 2022 Queen Mother Champion Chase, behind Shishkin, who had narrowly beaten him in the Clarence House Chase at Ascot on his previous start. However, with Shishkin never travelling on the prevailing soft going, Energumene was left with a straightforward task and readily went clear in the closing stages to beat Funambule Sivola by eight and a half lengths.

In 2023, Energumene was once again beaten in his preparatory race for the Queen Mother Champion Chase, the rearranged Clarence House Chase, run that year on the New Course at Cheltenham. Nevertheless, he was sent off 6/5 favourite for the two-mile chasing championship and duly obliged, flying the final fence and keeping on well for an impressive 10-length victory over Captain Guinness.

Owned by Kenneth Alexander, trained by Henry de Bromhead and ridden by Rachael Blackmore on all her starts under National Hunt Rules, Honeysuckle was retired from racing after justifying joint-favouritism in the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival on March 14, 2023. On that occasion, she kept on strongly in the closing stages to beat Love Envoi by a length and a half, havimg previously beaten odd-on favourite Benie Des Dieux by half a length in the same race on her Cheltenham Festival debut, as a six-year-old, on March 10, 2020.

In between times, the daughter of high-class jumps sire Sulamani had her sights raised at the Cheltenham Festival, contesting the Champion Hurdle in both 2021 and 2022. On the first occasion, she arrived at Prestbury Park unbeaten in eleven races, including her sole point-to-point start, and was sent off 11/10 favourite to extend her winning streak. So she did, in some style, going clear approaching the final flight to win, impressively, by six and a half lengths from Sharjah.

Following three more wins on home soil, all at Grade 1 level, Honeysuckle was back at Cheltenham for the 2022 Champion Hurdle, in which she was sent off at 8/11 to defend her title. Again, she was untroubled, travelling strongly throughout and going clear in the closing stages to readily beat the 2020 winner, Epatante, by three and a half lengths.

At the end of her career, Honeysuckle had won 17 of her 19 races, including 13 at Grade 1 level, and amassed £1.43 million in prixe money. She achieved a Timeform Annual Rating of 165, making her, jointly, the sixth highest-rated jumping mare since the early sixties, according to that organisation. Henry de Bromhead said of her, “…she’s just such an incredible mare, we feel so privileged and lucky to have had anything to do with her.”

Owned by Gigginstown House Stud and trained by Gordon Elliott in Longwood, County Meath, Tiger Roll is best known for winning the Grand National in 2018 and 2019, thereby becoming the first horse since Red Rum, in 1974, to win back-to-back renewals of the celebrated steeplechase. However, it should not be forgotten that the Authorized gelding also had an enviable record at the Cheltenham Festival, where he record five victories, in three different races, between 2014 and 2021.

Having won a juvenile hurdle at Market Rasen on his debut for Nigel Hawke on November 10, 2013, Tiger Roll was acquired by Gigginstown House Stud and transferred to Elliott, with a view to contesting the Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle at the 2014 Cheltenham Festival. Instead, though, he ran in, and won, the Triumph Hurdle, drawing clear in the closing stages to beat Kentucky Hyden by three and a quarter lengths.

At the 2015 Cheltenham Festival, Tiger Roll contested the World Hurdle, over three miles, finishing down the field behind Cole Harden as a 50/1 outsider. The following season he was sent over fences and at the 2017 Cheltenham Festival was back in the winners’ enclosure after staying on well to beat Missed Approach by three lengths in the National Hunt Challenge Cup.

Tiger Roll warmed up for his Grand National victories by winning the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase at the Cheltenham Festival in both 2018 and 2019. He was beaten at odds-on in the same race in 2020, but won it again in 2021, reversing the form with his 2020 conqueror, Easyland, to the tune of 35 lengths. Indeed, Tiger Roll finished his career in the same race in 2022, going down by three-quarters of a length to stable companion, and favourite, Delta Work, with the pair 21 lengths clear of the third horse home.

Owned by Marie and Joe Donnelly, in whose now-familiar yellow and black chequered silks he raced, Al Boum Photo was retired from racing after being pulled up after three out, when tailed off, in the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris at Auteil on May 22, 2022. The proved to be a low-key end to an otherwise glittering career, during which he won eight of his 18 steeplechases, including three at Grade 1 level, and over £1 million in prize money.

As far as the Cheltenham Festival is concerned, Al Boum Photo had the distinction of being a first Cheltenham Gold Cup winner for Closutton maestro Willie Mullins, who had previously saddled the runner-up in the ‘Blue Riband’ event no fewer than six occasions. On March 15, 2019, Al Boum Photo was only the stable third-string, behind Kemboy and Bellshill but, in the hands of Paul Townend, stayed on strongly from the final fence to beat Anibale Fly by two and a half lengths.

Townend succeeded Ruby Walsh as Mullins’ stable jockey following his retirement on May 1, 2019 and was once again in the saddle as Al Boum Photo attempted to defend his title in the Cheltenham Gold Cup on March 13, 2020. Having won the Savill’s New Year’s Day at Tramore for the second year running, the eight-year-old was sent off 100/30 favourite, ahead of joint second-favourites Santini and Delta Work at 5/1.

Al Boum Photo led narrowly four from home but, in a thrilling finish, the result was in doubt until the last stride or two. Santini, who was twice switched right in the closing stages, did his level best to reach the leader, but failed, narrowly, to do so, eventually finishing second, beaten a neck. Lostintranslation finished third, a further length and a quarter away, with Monalee just a neck behind in fourth place.

In recent times, Constitution Hill has found fame in the sphere of Flat racing, at the time of writing, winning both starts with consummate ease, by an aggegrate of over 11 lengths, and earning an official handicap rating of 101. After just two runs, that marks him out as a high-class handicapper, at the very least but, rising 10, it will be interesting to see if he is capable of further progress.

In any event, Constitution Hill remains, jointly, the sixth highest-rated hurdler in the history of Timeform, which first published ratings for National Hunt racing in the early sixties. Owned by Michael Buckley and trained by Nicky Henderson, the Blue Bresil gelding won 10 of his 11 completed starts over obstacles, including eight of Grade 1 level, and amassed £882,000 in prize money.

Constitution Hill achieved his most notable success on March 14, 2023, when, in the hands of Nico De Boinville, he justified odds of 4/11 with an impressive, nine-length victory over State Man in the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. That was, in fact, his second win at the Festival after a 22-length demolition of Jonbon in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle the previous year, prompting Tony McCoy to say of him, “He’s the horse of a generation, maybe a horse we talk about for generations.”

Sadly, Constitution Hill subsequently lost his confidence over hurdles, leading to high-profile falls in the Champion Hurdle, Aintree Hurdle and Fighting Fifth Hurdle in 2025. Calling time on his hurdling career, in February 2026, Henderson told the ‘Racing Post’, “His work has been brilliant, and he’s technically the best jumper I’ve seen over hurdles in my life, but I just can’t risk it. Michael [Buckley] was here, and we said the same thing. We both just agreed we couldn’t face any more of him over them.”