Cheltenham: Honeysuckle takes perfect 14-race streak into day one feature

The evidence of Peter Molony’s eyes means Honeysuckle carries Kenny Alexander’s colours in Tuesday’s Unibet Champion Hurdle.

Racing’s ‘poster mare’ is owned by the Scottish businessman who employs Molony as his racing manager.

It was in that role that the Irishman examined Honeysuckle’s pedigree after she’d won a point to point in 2018. He didn’t like what he saw on paper.

“When she was initially put up to me I took a look at the pedigree and I had no interest I must admit. I didn’t think her pedigree was good enough, both sides to be honest,” Molony says of the British bred daughter of Sulamani out of a German bred mare.

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“But I was at Punchestown when she was being sold and I went to see her anyway.

“She was just a big raw frame at the time and I thought if she won well looking like this she must be pretty talented. I then went off and looked at the video of her winning several times and she was incredibly impressive.

“The second, Annie Mac, was also very highly thought of and she just destroyed her. So I got in touch with Kenny and said ‘listen we need to rethink this and maybe we should have a crack at this one,” he recalls.

The result was the raw point to point winner changed hands at Punchestown’s Goff sale in 2018 for €110,000.

On such hunches do legendary careers begin: Honeysuckle goes into the day one Cheltenham festival feature with a perfect 14 race career in the bag and a second championship apparently hers for the taking.

If jockey Rachael Blackmore and trainer Henry De Bromhead are the public faces of the Honeysuckle story, her Champion Hurdle exploits resonate more than most with the man who bought her.

This isn’t the first time Molony’s Rathmore Stud in Co. Limerick has had a key role in the championship contest.

It is 50 years since Bula, a horse purchased as a youngster by Molony’s late father, the legendary jockey, Martin Molony, won his second Champion Hurdle in a row.

During a short but stellar riding career Martin Molony never won the race but his brother, Tim, remains the only jockey ever to win it four years running.

Sir Ken won the first of his three Champion Hurdles 70 years ago and the season prior to it Tim Molony was on board for the final leg of Hatton’s Grace’s own hat-trick.

“Uncle Tim, I think, is the only jockey to win four in a row, and on two great horses, Hatton’s Grace and Sir Ken.

“My Dad was supposed to ride Hatton’s Grace the year he won but had to cry off because of measles or mumps or something so Tim rode him instead.

“Hatton’s Grace was mentioned on a regular basis in our house when we were kids. My father loved him. He was probably his favourite horse.

“It was a two day festival then. The second day, the Gold Cup was snowed off and delayed until April when Martin came back and rode Silver Fame to win the Gold Cup,” Molony recalls.

His father, who died in 2017 aged 91, was acclaimed by many who saw him as being among the best jockeys ever to emerge from Ireland.

A champion over jumps, and a classic winner on the flat, his career was cruelly cut short by injury at just 26.

His brother was champion jockey in Britain five times and also won a Gold Cup for Vincent O’Brien on Knock Hard in 1953.

Peter Molony has continued Rathmore's legacy as a thoroughbred nursery, selling star performers as diverse as the Gold Cup winner Bob's Worth and Hong Kong Derby hero Sobriety.

Honeysuckle’s Champion Hurdle exploits resonate through the generations for someone who as well as managing Alexander’s bloodstock interest represents Qatar Racing in Ireland.

Martin Molony bought Bula as an unraced three year old for his wife’s cousin, Judy Edwards-Heathcote, and the horse was trained by Fred Winter to win his first 13 races.

Honeysuckle broke that record when landing last month’s Irish Champion Hurdle.

Bula’s owner is 95, living in Somerset, and following the Honeysuckle story as eagerly as anyone.

There’s a public expectation around the mare now that makes a mixed bag for the man whose change of heart kicked the whole story off.

“The primary emotion after race now is relief. It’s the unbeaten thing. Whenever she gets beaten - and she will get beaten at some stage - it will probably provide a little bit of relief.

“It’s a pressure we welcome, though. It’s first world pressure so we’re not complaining,” Molony says.

The evidence of most everyone’s eyes suggests there will be no complaining at all come Tuesday evening.