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Henry de Bromhead pulls up a chair and prepares to discuss his Cheltenham team but he knows where this conversation must start. ‘Don't worry,' he says, Chiếu ngựa gỗ hương đá chuckling. ‘I never, ever tire of talking about her.' ‘Her', of course, Sập gỗ lim nguyên khố is Honeysuckle. The first day of the Festival belonged to this beautiful mare with the big heart in the last four years but when the action begins on Tuesday, she will be 350 miles away at her owner Kenny Alexander's stud in Ayrshire, preparing to deliver her first foal.

‘Kenny keeps sending pictures over of her, she looks amazing,' De Bromhead says. ‘We see her again soon, for sure. She went out in one piece and the way she went out was just incredible. We always knew it was going to happen and we were prepared for it. But life moves on.' It does — this 51-year-old, Chiếu ngựa gỗ hương đá who trains in Knockeen, Waterford, knows it only too well — but sometimes you have to look at the past, specifically the events of March 14, 2023 when Honeysuckle provided one of those moments written in the stars.

Honeysuckle, ridden by Rachel Blackmore, claimed an emotional victory at Cheltenham Seven months earlier, De Bromhead had lost his 13-year-old son, Jack, in a pony race. Through the unimaginable grief, Sập gỗ lim nguyên khố he, his wife Heather, Jack's twin sister Mia and youngest daughter Georgia were enveloped with unrelenting support from the racing community. The news resonated far and wide. De Bromhead is a fantastic trainer, a man with a CV that includes two Gold Cups among 25 Cheltenham successes and a Grand National, too, so when he brought Honeysuckle over for her racecourse swansong, it was always going to be poignant.

Honeysuckle had been the darling of Cheltenham, having won the Mares' Hurdle and two Champion Hurdles, but many wondered whether this was going to be one race too far. Not a bit of it. Her surge from the last flight carried her to a second success in the Mares' Hurdle. ‘When I think back, that hour was amazing,' says De Bromhead. ‘You had the greatness of Constitution Hill in the Champion Hurdle and then Honeysuckle coming back as she did.

She was never going to let anything but that happen, was she? That's just the way she was. She probably decided to get beaten those couple of times last winter to make it even more dramatic. Listen, it was the greatest moment ever. It was unbelievable. I didn't know it at the time but the little rainbow, over the winners' enclosure, as we came back in… ‘Then the crowd… I think that was everyone's way of showing us (as a family) they wanted to give us support.

It just meant so much. Listen, let's not forget about her — to go out as she did? She was an incredible mare. It was amazing. I'll never get sick of talking about that, one of the very great days.' And there have been many great days, with 14 of those 25 Festival victories arriving since 2020.