Honeysuckle bids to extend unbeaten record in Winter Festival at Fairyhouse

The superstitious may be wary of any ‘Unlucky 13’ scenario but the odds suggest Honeysuckle will maintain her spotless unbeaten record at Fairyhouse’s Winter Festival on Sunday.

Racing's poster-partnership of Honeysuckle and jockey Rachael Blackmore are set to put their perfect 12 out of 12 record on the line in the €100,000 Bar One Racing Hatton's Grace Hurdle.

The centrepiece of the biggest Grade One card of the National Hunt season to date could have up to 11 runners but the spotlight will be resolutely on only one of them.

The reigning champion hurdler is a general 4-7 favourite to join illustrious company and become a triple-Hatton’s Grace winner.

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Successful in both 2019 and 2020, Honeysuckle will join two other mares, Apple’s Jade and Solerina, as a hat-trick heroine if victorious on Sunday.

Limestone Lad was also a three-time winner of the two and a half mile contest in 1999, 2001 and 2002.

It will be Honeysuckle's first start since scoring at the Punchestown festival at the end of April and she is only 7-4 to defend her Cheltenham crown in March.

"Honeysuckle seems in great form. She schooled this morning and jumped well. Rachael was happy with her so all good," trainer Henry De Bromhead reported.

Two other Grade One-winning mares Stormy Ireland and Skyace are in line to take her on along with Ronald Pump who last year gave the unbeaten star a fright by finishing a half-length runner up.

However a new threat could come from Klassical Dream, one of three chances Willie Mullins has to secure a first win in the Hatton's Grace since Arctic Fire in 2015. Klassical Dream made light of a 487 day absence to land the Stayers prize at the Punchestown festival last season.

He is joined among the 11 entries left in at Tuesday’s acceptance stage by his stable companion Saldier, winner of the Galway Hurdle during the summer.

Ground conditions are likely to prove more summer-like than winter at the weekend with the going currently good at Fairyhouse ahead of the festival which starts on Saturday.

Dry conditions

"We are delighted to see Honeysuckle head a star-studded line up for the fixture which is regarded as the best weekend's racing in the first half of the season," the Fairyhouse manager Peter Roe said.

The prevailing dry conditions have stalled running plans for some during the new campaign with an apparent impact on the Grade One Royal Bond Novice Hurdle which has just nine left in.

They include another unbeaten mare in Impervious who will try to give trainer Colm Murphy a fresh taste of top-flight success.

The man who saddled Brave Inca to Hatton’s Grade glory in 2006 relinquished his licence in 2016 only to return to training three years later.

Murphy looks to have a smart youngster on his hands in Impervious who made it three wins from three starts at Down Royal last month.

The in-form Gordon Elliott has landed Sunday's third Grade One prize, the Drinmore Novice Chase, half a dozen times in the last 11 years including with Envoi Allen in 2020. He has a pair of options this time in Fury Road and Grand Paradis.

Joseph O’Brien has supplemented Global Equity into the Drinmore to give himself four potential runners.