AS at the Cheltenham Festival every year, races are won by horses whose riders, trainers, grooms and sometimes owners, started off in other equestrian disciplines, such as hunting, show jumping and eventing and most of these were members of their local Pony Club Branches.

This year’s meeting commenced with a focus on one such individual, the late Michael O’Sullivan, with the opening Supreme Novices’ Hurdle (Grade 1) being named in honour of the one-time show jumper and eventer, who hunted with the Duhallows and was a former member of the pack’s Branch of the Irish Pony Club.

The Grade 1 race was won Kopek Des Bordes, whose jockey Paul Townend and trainer Willie Mullins were two of the many racing professionals, who paid tribute to Michael during the week - particularly on Wednesday, when the two horses he partnered to victory at the 2023 Festival, Marine Nationale and Jazzy Matty, won again.

Also on Wednesday, the Glenfarclas Cross County Chase was won by the Gavin Cromwell-trained, Keith Donoghue-ridden Stumptown.

In November, Noel Mullins reported from the opening meet of the Fingal Harriers and photographed Gavin, on foot, with his sons, Jake and Cameron. When asked after Wednesday’s race by Alice Fox-Pitt what makes the cross-country course such a specialist track for him, Keith replied: “I grew up hunting with the Ward Union and it all comes back to that.”

While we have covered wins here in the past for former show jumpers like Danny Mullins and eventers such as Joseph O’Brien, who were on the mark again this year, there was a first win at the Festival on Wednesday for another from the show jumping ranks, Jody Townend. A well-known performer over the coloured poles with One Lucky Strike, Jody won the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper on the five-year-old mare Bambino Fever, trained by that man Willie Mullins.

Having missed a lot of winning rides through injury earlier in the season, it was great to see former show jumper, eventer, show pony rider, etc, Rachael Blackmore recorded a double for Henry de Bromhead on the Thursday with Air Of Entitlement in the Ryanair Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle (Grade 2) and on Bob Olinger in the Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle (Grade 1).

The Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup (Grade 1) winner Inothewayurthinkin, trained by Gavin Cromwell for J.P. McManus and ridden by Mark Walsh, led an Irish whitewash on Friday, as the Festival came to a close. There was a hat trick of sorts for one man involved in both showing and racing, John Roche, as the Presenting gelding he bred, Its On The Line, finished second for the third year running in the St James’s Place Festival Challenge Cup Open Hunters’ Chase.

All week, former Irish-trained point-to-point horses visited the winner’s enclosure, among them the very impressive Willie Mullins-trained Fact To File who, in the colours of J.P. Manus and in the hands of Mark Walsh, landed Thursday’s Ryanair Chase (Grade 1). The French-bred gelding won a five-year-old geldings’ maiden at Bellharbour in February 2022 on his only start for Donnchadh Doyle.