Cheltenham’s punters return to give Rachael Blackmore overdue acclaim

All hail Queen Rachael Blackmore of Cheltenham, who finally got to bask in the warm, long and loud applause of her adoring public a full year after first being crowned. Her repeat victory on board Honeysuckle in this year’s Champion Hurdle meant there was no more popular winner on the opening day of the first Festival to open its doors to the public, even if a nasty fall in the next race quickly brought her crashing back to earth.

Such is the life of a professional jockey, but her latest big race success was a genuinely heartwarming occasion to be part of. For all her modesty, Blackmore clearly enjoyed the very public acclaim that was so cruelly denied to her by circumstance last year.

It was the highlight of a long day. “ARE YOU READY TO ROAR?” the Racing Post’s front page had excitedly enquired of readers and racegoers in a nod to the fabled guttural release that rolls down from the packed grandstand and across the verdant green of the racecourse to greet the start of the opening race at Cheltenham each March. While the answer seemed to be a resounding yes, a false start from the skittish Dysart Dynamo in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle meant this year’s collective bellow came to a premature end. Although the 70,000 present tried to rally themselves for another visceral outpouring of celebratory joie de vivre when starter Robbie Supple rereleased the tapes and the field finally began motoring on their two-mile trek, the moment had passed.

Braying drunks. A tidal wave of tweed and mustard corduroy. Ray Parlour skulling pints in the Guinness Village at 10.30am. Slowly but surely, nature is healing. At least you could certainly be forgiven for thinking so given the almost total absence of face masks adorning the tens of