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TWO horses from the Flat and four from the National Hunt sphere make up the nominations for the Horse of the Year award with world champion Kyprios and the much-travelled State Of Rest joined on the list by the unbeaten Champion hurdler Honeysuckle, Cheltenham Gold Cup hero A Plus Tard and multiple Grade 1 winners and fellow Cheltenham Festival heroes Allaho and Energumene.
Flat award
Trainers Henry de Bromhead and Willie Mullins and jockeys Rachael Blackmore, Paul Townend and Patrick Mullins are the five nominated in the National Hunt Award category. There are also five nominees for the Flat Award: jockeys Colin Keane and Billy Lee, and trainers Paddy Twomey, Aidan O'Brien and Joseph O'Brien.
In the Flat Achievement Award category, there are six nominees: Willie Browne for his exploits with Spirit Gal; Dylan Browne McMonagle for his breakthrough Group 1 success; Nathan Crosse for celebrating a Listed winner soon after riding out his claim; Brian Duffy for his memorable win with Magic Chegaga at the Galway festival; Ado McGuinness for his Galway festival hat-trick in the ‘Ahonoora’ Handicap with Current Option, and Mikey Sheehy, who followed up on losing his claim with a notable Group 3 win.
National Hunt
The five nominees for the National Hunt Achievement Award are: Paddy Corkery who joined an illustrious list of Grade 1 winning trainers; John “Shark” Hanlon for his most notable hat-trick of wins with Hewick; Tony Martin for saddling Tudor City to become the first horse to win the Guinness Galway Hurdle for a second time in almost 40 years; Dermot McLoughlin who became the first trainer in almost 50 years to win back-to-back renewals of the BoyleSports Irish Grand National with two different horses; and Emmet Mullins who hit the big time with his Aintree Grand National success in April.
Point-to-Point
The Point-to-Point category is made up of Colin Bowe, David Christie, James Hannon, Liz Lalor and Barry O’Neill while the nominees for the Emerging Talent Award are jockeys Jake Coen, Sam Ewing, Michael O’Sullivan and Jamie Powell.
Suzanne Eade, CEO of Horse Racing Ireland, said: “Irish racing has had much to celebrate in the year gone by and I look forward to reflecting on that success at the 20th HRI Awards in Dublin next month. It is terrific to see so many nominations across the awards categories, honouring the wonderful achievements by so many in a racing industry that we can all be proud of.”
The winners of each category – Horse of the Year, National Hunt Award, National Hunt Achievement Award, Flat Award, Flat Achievement Award, Point-to-Point Award and the Emerging Talent Award - will be decided by a ballot of the Irish racing media.
Separately, a public vote will decide the outcome of the 2022 Ride of the Year with the contenders, as chosen once again by Fran Berry and Davy Russell, to be announced shortly.
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