Quevega is Queen for Mullins and Ireland

By Emma Berry 
Royal Ascot may be the jewel of the British Flat racing season, but the Cheltenham Festival is the beating heart of the jumping code which, in the UK and Ireland, is arguably more passionately celebrated than its summer cousin. 
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Cotswolds in mid-March when for four days an otherwise sleepy corner of rural England is transformed by the hullabaloo of more than 200,000 racegoers for whom missing the Festival is simply unthinkable. 
This pilgrimage is not solely the preserve of the Brits, however. Wandering among the crowd, almost every other accent is an Irish one. The airline Ryanair, which sponsors a Grade 1 steeplechase at the meeting and whose chief executive Michael O’Leary breeds and races jumpers through his Gigginstown House Stud, lays on extra flights for the week from Dublin to Birmingham to cope with the Emerald Isle exodus. 
With almost £4 million (approximately $6.5 million) in prize-money on offer over the four days, there’s plenty at stake for those closely involved with a runner. There is also the no less important matter of national pride, with the fierce rivalry between the British and the Irish this year augmented by the introduction of the Prestbury Cup, awarded to the country which fields the most winners. 
Once race fans have been fortified by a drop or two of the black stuff in the heaving Guinness Village – where 236,472 pints of Ireland’s other fine export were served at last year’s Festival – the serious business begins. 
The spine-tingling roar that greets the shooting back of the tapes for the curtain-raiser, the Grade 1 Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, is beaten only by that in response to a Festival banker trained by the king of the raiders, Ireland’s rampant champion trainer Willie Mullins. 
Technically, first blood goes to Ireland, but the spring-heeled winner Vautour (Fr) (Robin Des Champs {Fr}) was bred in France – the only living foal of his dam Gazelle de Mai (Fr) – and is owned by American-born but British-based banker Rich Ricci. 
Twelve months earlier Ricci, whose significant string of horses with Mullins race in the name of his wife Susannah, enjoyed success in the same race with Champagne Fever (Ire) (Stowaway {GB}), who comes agonizingly close to recording his third successive Festival victory in the very next race, the Racing Post Arkle Challenge Trophy. Ricci’s swift double is foiled on the line by a last-gasp dash from Western Warhorse (Ire) (Westerner {GB}) for jockey Tom Scudamore and trainer David Pipe, sons respectively of former champion jump jockey Peter Scudamore and former champion trainer Martin Pipe. 
The third Grade 1 contest of the day, the Stan James Champion Hurdle, is also the most important and for many the race of the meeting. Dual winner Hurricane Fly (Ire) has a record-breaking tally of 19 Grade 1 victories hewn over the last six seasons but the tough little son of Montjeu (Ire) is an obvious target for younger, fresher legs. As the stamina-sapping uphill battle to the line ensued, the 10-year-old, who had been prominent throughout, faltered in his bid to join the elite group to have won three Champion Hurdle titles. The last horse to have done so, the great Istabraq (Ire) (Sadler’s Wells), bore the same colors as this year’s champion Jezki (Ire) (Milan {GB}), those of prolific jumps owner JP McManus, who celebrated his 40th Cheltenham Festival win and was also responsible for the runner-up My Tent Or Yours (Ire) (Desert Prince {Ire}). 
Jezki’s trainer Jessica Harrington became only the second woman to train a Champion Hurdle winner, but the spotlight was quickly wrested from her by another Irish female, the record-breaking mare Quevega (Fr), who rewrote the history books by becoming the winningest horse at the Cheltenham Festival. The diminutive hurdler, who has claimed six successive OLBG Mares’ Hurdle titles, may have been foaled in France but she is most definitely now a daughter of Ireland. Her massively popular victory put her trainer Willie Mullins at the top of the table for the Festival thus far and gave her sire, the Glenview Stud stallion Robin Des Champs (Fr), a notable double for the day. 
“She’s just something else,” said Mullins, who once confessed he had considered sending Quevega back to France when he first saw her on account of her lack of stature. She has, however, rewarded the trainer handsomely for offering her shelter in his County Carlow yard. Tiny she may be, but at Cheltenham, where returning equine heroes and heroines are cherished, her reputation stands tallest of all.