About Henry
Born in Waterford in 1972 , Henry sealed a unique place in National Hunt racing history by becoming the first trainer to saddle the winner of the Champion Hurdle, the Champion Chase and the Gold Cup in the same year at the 2021 Cheltenham Festival.
Although learning his craft at home with father Harry - who won the 1993 Pertemps Final at the Cheltenham Festival with Fissure Seal - he also spent time with Robert and Sally Alner, Sir Mark Prescott and Coolmore Stud.
After abandoning his original career choice in accountancy, he took over the training licence from his father Harry in 1999. Although scoring with his first runner at his local Tramore track - Fidalus romping home at 10/1 on New Year's Day 2000 - it was a case of life in the slow lane for the young trainer until the arrival of Sizing Europe, owned by Ann and Alan Potts. It saw a dramatic upturn in the yard's fortunes, with Sizing Europe's breakthrough Grade One win in the Irish Champion Hurdle in 2008 the first of eight races at the highest level. In all he won 22 of his 45 races and earned prize-money of almost €2m but probably more importantly he delivered a first Cheltenham Festival success in the Arkle Chase in 2010. He won the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Festival the following season, the same year Sizing Australia bolted up in the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase at the same meeting.
A remarkable 2016-2017 season confirmed him as a rising star when he sent out 75 individual winners - five at Grade One level - including stable favourite Special Tiara who enjoyed the finest hour of his career - tragically cut short in 2019 at Leopardstown - by claiming the 2017 Queen Mother Champion Chase at the fourth attempt. It was the seventh of his seven wins, three of them in Britain at Grade One level (2015 Celebration Chase and 2013 Maghull Novices' Chase). That same year he enjoyed another milestone with Balko Des Flos in the Galway Plate, and landed a second Irish Champion Hurdle with Petit Mouchir, both owned by Gigginstown Stud.
In 2018 he was back in the winner's enclosure after his fifth Festival success in the Ryanair Chase with Balko Des Flos, the same year a promising young female jockey called Rachael Blackmore claimed a mares novice hurdle at Thurles on the up-and-coming mare Honeysuckle. That same year Identity Thief - winner of the Fighting Fifth Hurdle in 2015 - landed the Grade One Liverpool Hurdle. Other big-race winners at Aintree were Sizing Granite (2015 Maghull Novices Chase), Ornua (2019 Maghull Novices' Chase) and Inthepocket (2023 Top Novices' Hurdle).
In 2019 he was on the mark at the Festival with two future Gold Cup winners in Minella Indo (Spa Novices' Hurdle) and A Plus Tard (Centenary Novices' Handicap Chase). The following spring Honeysuckle brought an eight-race unblemished record to the 2020 Festival and struck gold in the Mares' Hurdle, adding to the victory of Put The Kettle On in the Arkle Challenge Trophy. The pair would return for even greater triumphs but few were prepared for the stunning six-winner haul that followed in 2021, which was played out behind closed doors due to the Covid 19 pandemic.
Honeysuckle's emphatic win in the Champion Hurdle got the ball rolling under a masterful ride from Blackmore - who landed the number one job at Knockeen on the recommendation of Gigginstown's Eddie O'Leary - before the jockey steered Bob Olinger to victory in the Ballymore Novices' Hurdle. Things got even better when Put The Kettle On became the first mare to win the Queen Mother Champion Chase while Telmesomethinggirl strutted her stuff in the Mares' Novices' Hurdle. Quilixios gave Blackmore a sixth victory of the week in the Triumph before the Jack Kennedy-ridden Minella Indo headed a famous one-two for the yard in the Gold Cup, with Blackmore preferring to ride the runner-up A Plus Tard who would go on to win the Grade One Betfair Chase (2021) at Haydock. The trainer only missed out on the leading trainer award to Willie Mullins on count-back.
Harry and Henry at Tramore Races
Harry and Henry at Cheltenham Festival
Harry and Henry at Cheltenham Festival
It was not long before Blackmore was back in the world headlines, riding the stable's Minella Times to an historic victory in the 2021 Aintree Grand National, becoming the first female jockey to win racing's greatest steeplechase in its 173rd year. The jockey was flawless as she powered up the famous hill on A Plus Tard to deliver another one-two for the trainer in the 2022 Gold Cup, this time to the deafening roar of 70,000 racegoers. Her victory on Honeysuckle three days earlier to retain the Champion Hurdle crown was a 15th career success as she became the first mare to win the Champion Hurdle twice. Bob Ollinger rounded off another remarkable Festival for the all-conquering partnership with a third success for the yard in the Golden Miller Novices' Chase.
Honeysuckle won four consecutive times at the mecca of National Hunt racing, bringing the curtain down on a truly remarkable career with an emotionally-charged win the 2023 Mares' Hurdle. Six months earlier, the trainer's 13-year-old son Jack had suffered fatal injuries in a pony racing accident in Co Kerry. The post-race scenes in the winner's enclosure will likely never be seen again.
Honeysuckle bowed out with 17 career wins from 19 hurdle starts, including three Irish Champion Hurdles, two Punchestown Champion Hurdles and three Hatton's Grace Hurdles. Envoi Allen added to his wins in the 2019 Champion Bumper and 2020 Ballymore Hurdle - when trained by Gordon Elliott - with victory in the Ryanair Chase, and Maskada made it another hat-trick of Festival victories in the Grand Annual Chase. Secured a fourth Champion Chase win with Captain Guinness in 2024, adding to the impressive success of Slade Steel in the Supreme Novices' Hurdle. Bob Olinger's win in the 2025 Stayers' Hurdle saw him complete a clean sweep of all four Championship races.
He has successfully dipped his toe in Flat racing with Magical Zoe, who finished fourth in the County Hurdle at Cheltenham in March, landing a massive gamble in the 2024 Ebor Handicap at York and Term Of Endearment, winner of the Group Two Lillie Langtry Stakes at Goodwood (2024) as well as two Group Three races at Cork (2023 Give Thanks Stakes) and York (2024 Bronte Cup Stakes).
Thank you to John Kelly, ex journalist Irish Times for this article
The de Bromhead family at Tramore Racecourse to receive Freedom of the City!
The de Bromhead family and Rachael after The Holy Trinity success
