Greatest Mares: Honeysuckle 555u2n

Pedigree Details

Sire: Sulamani

Dam: First Royal

Dam’s sire: Lando

Breeder: Dr G. W. Guy

Foaled: April 28 2014

Race Record & Fact file

Races: 19

Wins: 17

Owner: Kenny Alexander

Trainer: Henry de Bromhead

Honeysuckle profile

The first mare to win the Champion Hurdle twice, Honeysuckle also counted three editions of both the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle and Irish Champion Hurdle, as well as two more Cheltenham Festival victories in the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle, among a total of 13 wins at the top level. It’s taking nothing away from Honeysuckle’s irable record to point out that she dominated the two-mile hurdling scene at a time when competition in the division was notably weak. But with the exception of two defeats towards the end of her career, she beat everything that was put in front of her in what became her trademark fashion, ridden close to the pace before dismissing her rivals with a turn of foot coupled with a very willing attitude when the occasion demanded it. Ridden in all her races by Rachael Blackmore, it was a partnership mutually beneficial to the career of both horse and jockey.

A medium-sized daughter of top-class middle-distance performer Sulamani, British-bred Honeysuckle failed to find a buyer when first offered for sale as a yearling and then fetched only €9,500 when put through the ring again as a three-year-old. Having won a four-year-old mares’ maiden point at Dromahane in April 2018 (beating Annie Mc, later a useful hurdler/chaser herself), Honeysuckle ed Henry de Bromhead’s yard after being bought for €110,000.

2018/19 season

Honeysuckle was odds on for her debut under Rules in a mares’ maiden hurdle at Fairyhouse and marked herself down as a useful prospect by winning comfortably by a dozen lengths. That was over two and a half miles, but a steadily-run race over two miles proved no problem for her next time when she stepped up to listed company for a mares’ novices’ hurdle at Thurles. After that ready success, she progressed again to win the Grade 3 Solerina Mares Novice Hurdle back at Fairyhouse by six lengths, apparently booking her ticket for Cheltenham. Instead, it was nearly three months before Honeysuckle was seen out again, proving herself the best novice hurdler of her sex with a most impressive victory in the Grade 1 Mares Novice Hurdle Championship Final at Fairyhouse again.

While Honeysuckle had missed Cheltenham after a setback just a week beforehand, several of her rivals had contested the Dawn Run Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle at the Festival, including the surprise winner Eglantine du Seuil. But Honeysuckle proved much the best, landing in front three out and then quickening away after the next with Eglantine du Seuil back in third. Willie Mullins had both the placed horses, with runner-up Elfile, beaten five and a half lengths, making it a one-two for Honeysuckle’s owner Kenny Alexander. 

Major races won

• Solerina Mares Novice Hurdle, Fairyhouse
• Irish Stallions Farms EBF Mares Novice Hurdle Championship Final, Fairyhouse

 2019/20 season

Impressive though Honeysuckle had been thus far, she had only beaten novices of her own sex, and a rating of 140p left her with plenty more improvement to make if she were to maintain her unbeaten record in open company. But after a straightforward task in a minor event at Fairyhouse on her return, she did exactly that in the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle over the same course and distance. Her main rival was the mare Apple’s Jade who had won the last three editions of the Hatton’s Grace, but it was Honeysuckle who started favourite at a shade of odds on and routed her field with another impressive win which confirmed the dawning of a new era. A below par Apple’s Jade could finish only third as Honeysuckle ran out an impressive winner by nine lengths from Bacardys in what was to be the first of her own hat-trick of wins in the race.

So far, all bar one of Honeysuckle’s races had come at Fairyhouse, and over further than two miles, so she faced a different test going left-handed over a bare two miles in the Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown on her next start. She had to work harder to land the odds this time but not because of the track or the shorter trip. She travelled well as usual before leading early in the straight but an awkward jump at the last briefly allowed her pace-setting stablemate Petit Mouchoir to head her again on the run-in before Honeysuckle found extra to regain the lead. Darver Star came through to take second from Petit Mouchoir, a former winner of the race, with the distances between the first three half a length and the same.

The placed horses from the Irish Champion Hurdle went on to contest the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham but it was Sharjah, only sixth at Leopardstown, who fared best of the Irish there, finishing runner-up, with Darver Star third, behind another mare Epatante. Honeysuckle had the Champion Hurdle option too but after some deliberation on the part of her connections instead contested the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle even though that wasn’t necessarily an easier alternative. In one of the most keenly-anticipated clashes of the 2020 Cheltenham Festival, Honeysuckle was sent off the 9/4 second favourite behind Benie des Dieux who had won all eight of her completed starts since ing Willie Mullins, the only blemish on her record being a fall at the final flight in the same race the year before when looking all set to win it for the second year.

The crucial point in the race came after two out where Rachael Blackmore’s decisive move when getting a gap up the inner after the second last ensured she got first run on the favourite who was forced wider. Keeping on gamely from that point, Honeysuckle held on by half a length from Benie des Dieux as the pair pulled clear to post the best performances in the race’s history and which, in theory, would have put Honeysuckle bang there in the Champion Hurdle. But there was no further opportunity for Honeysuckle to prove herself that season which ended prematurely because of the Convid-19 pandemic.

Major races won

• Hatton’s Grace Hurdle, Fairyhouse
• Irish Champion Hurdle, Leopardstown
• David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle, Cheltenham

2020/21 season

Unlike the year before, Honeysuckle won her second Hatton’s Grace without a prep run, and taking on mostly race-fit rivals, but in a steadily-run race Blackmore made the most of Honeysuckle’s speed, quickening two out and far enough clear jumping the last to hold on by half a length and a head from Ronald Pump and Beacon Edge. That was nothing like her best form, but Honeysuckle was a different proposition when winning her second Irish Champion Hurdle to take her unbeaten record to ten races. She was much more convincing than she had been the year before and probably didn’t put up a better performance in her whole career. It was clear from some way out that there was only going to be one winner, Honeysuckle racing in her now customary style, travelling well and jumping fluently, before kicking on from two out to win by ten lengths from Abacadabras.

There was no doubt this time that Honeysuckle had earned her place in the Champion Hurdle field where she started at 11/10 with reigning champion Epatante her main rival in the betting on 4/1. As it turned out, Epatante wasn’t in the same form as she had been 12 months earlier but even at her best she would likely have struggled against Honeysuckle who was a most decisive winner, jumping soundly and showing a good turn of foot on the way to beating Sharjah by six and a half lengths with Epatante back in third. The first three finished in the same order when they met again in the Champion Hurdle at Punchestown the following month, Sharjah finishing closer in second this time but not enough to detract from another dominant display by the winner.   

Major races won

• Hatton’s Grace Hurdle, Fairyhouse
• Irish Champion Hurdle, Leopardstown
• Champion Hurdle, Cheltenham
• Punchestown Champion Hurdle, Punchestown

2021/2022 season

With no other worthy rivals yet to appear on the Champion Hurdle scene and no sign of her losing any ability or enthusiasm, Honeysuckle enjoyed another season at the top in a 2021/22 campaign which was essentially a repeat of the previous one. If anything, she had a still easier time of it, never really having to be put to her best. She certainly beat Ronald Pump with much more to spare than the year before when winning her third consecutive Hatton’s Grace, emulating not only Apple’s Jade but another mare Solerina. A third Irish Champion Hurdle against four rivals at odds of 1/5 underlined the weakness of the two-mile hurdling division but on a more positive note put Honeysuckle in exalted company alongside Istabraq and Hurricane Fly as the only others to have won it more than twice.

A second Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham looked inevitable, therefore, and Honeysuckle duly landed the odds in a race run at just an ordinary gallop which demanded no more than a smart performance, chased home by Epatante to make it a one-two for the mares with Honeysuckle becoming the first of her sex to win it twice. Epatante ran away with the Aintree Hurdle on her next start while Honeysuckle went to Punchestown again where she won in trademark fashion for win number 16 and her twelfth Grade 1. She’d already beaten all her rivals at least once that season and this time it was another mare, Echoes In Rain, third in the Irish Champion Hurdle, who took the runner-up spot.

Major races won

• Hatton’s Grace Hurdle, Fairyhouse
• Irish Champion Hurdle, Leopardstown
• Champion Hurdle, Cheltenham
• Punchestown Champion Hurdle, Punchestown

2022/2023 season

It had already been decided that this would be Honeysuckle’s final season. The main question now was how much further would her unbeaten run stretch, especially as she finally seemed to have at least one serious rival to her dominance in the shape of Constitution Hill who had won the Supreme Novices’ so impressively on the same day she’d won her second Champion Hurdle. Honeysuckle’s final campaign followed a familiar path but she suffered defeats in both the Hatton’s Grace and the Irish Champion Hurdle. At Fairyhouse, where conditions were more testing than for her three wins in the Hatton’s Grace, she was beaten into third behind Teahupoo and Klassical Dream, leading on the bridle entering the straight but relinquishing her lead approaching the last. By the time she lined up for the Irish Champion Hurdle, State Man had emerged as another big threat to Honeysuckle’s supremacy and, while it was close between the pair in the betting, Honeysuckle didn’t have the speed in the closing stages to cope with her younger rival who beat her four and three quarter lengths.

Those defeats resulted in connections setting their sights on the Mares’ Hurdle at Cheltenham, which she’d won three years earlier, rather than a third successive Champion Hurdle. While that avoided taking on State Man again, not to mention Constitution Hill, the Mares’ Hurdle, as in 2020, was no ‘gimme’ for Honeysuckle’s career finale. In fact with old rival Epatante in the line-up, along with her stable-companion Marie’s Rock, the previous year’s winner who shared favouritism with Honeysuckle on 9/4, as well as some other smart mares, it was probably as deep a field as there’s ever been for the race.

Perfectly placed as ever by Rachael Blackmore, Honeysuckle challenged long-time leader Love Envoi going to the final flight, where she was less fluent than that rival, but typically responded well to assert in the final 100 yards and won going away by a length and a quarter. While both Epatante and Marie’s Rock disappointed, Honeysuckle, whilst not having to be close to her very best, ran her best race of the season to bring a magnificent career to a fitting close. She returned to a rapturous and emotionally charged welcome in the winner’s enclosure, not just in recognition of it being her final race but also acknowledging the personal tragedy suffered by her trainer whose young son Jack had suffered a fatal fall in a pony race months earlier.    

Major race won

•  David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle, Cheltenham