Sweet Dreams - Honeysuckle

PETER MOLONY

Sweet

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PETER MOLONY

O

NE of the Irish bankers at the Cheltenham Festival will be Honeysuckle - we just don’t know which race on the opening day she will run in. The Mares’ Hurdle was to be her target but the Champion Hurdle became a real possibility following her courageous success in the Irish equivalent at Leopardstown in February.

The connections of Benie Des Dieux face a similar dilemma. That mare won the Mares’ Hurdle in 2018 and was a desperately unlucky loser when coming down at the final flight in 2019. She too has the Champion Hurdle option and it seems likely, at time of going to press, that these two superstar mares will try to avoid each other.

The Henry de Bromhead-trained Honeysuckle is the pre-eminent member of owner Kenny Alexander’s select band of racemares who have made quite an impression on Irish racecourses for the last few seasons.

Central to this small but most select team is Rathmore Stud man Peter Molony whose keen eye for talent has enabled him to put together an enviable team of mares on behalf of the well-known Alexander who is CEO of gambling giant GVC Holdings.

“I first met Kenny about 10 years ago and at the time he was looking at buying some nice broodmares

‘We absolutely loved her when we saw her, as a physical and in terms OF what she did’ Rachael Blackmore and Peter Molony following Honeysuckle’s PCI Irish Champion Hurdle victory

Ryan McElligott talks to talent spotter supreme Peter Molony on the success story of the Kenny Alexander team of racemares

and breeding from them,” recalls Molony. “From that point on I was doing a few bits and pieces for him and bought him a few mares like Blazing Tempo and Asturiene.

“Over the course of time things have evolved. I suppose I’ve been buying in a formal capacity for Kenny since Cheltenham 2018 when we purchased Sinoria who was a very promising and talented mare but sadly we lost her in a fall at Cork just before Christmas.”

Just over a month after the purchase of the unfortunate Sinoria, Molony was again in action on behalf of Alexander when spending €110,000 on Honeysuckle at the 2018 Goffs Punchestown Sale.

Four days before the sale Honeysuckle was produced by Jerry Cosgrave to make a winning debut in a four-year-old mares maiden point-to-point at Dromahane.

Best performance Honeysuckle’s catalogue page for the sale noted that she produced possibly the best performance by a mare in a point-to-point that season. This has turned out to be rather prophetic given her subsequent exploits but a cursory glance at her pedigree at the time of the sale shows that the only National Hunt blacktype on the

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PETER MOLONY

catalogue page for the daughter of Sulamani came courtesy of her dam, First Royal, who was placed in a couple of listed hurdles in Germany.

“On pedigree Honeysuckle wasn’t really a standout,” reflects Molony. “Having said that she did look very good when she won her point and a number of people had put her forward as an exciting mare.

“We absolutely loved her when we saw her, as a physical and in terms what she did in her point-to point. That overrode any concerns we might have had in terms of pedigree,” adds the Rathmore man.

Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott were already on

‘The boutique auctions AT AINTREE AND PUNCHESTOWN are a great outlet for quality stock’ the owner’s roster of trainers but a chance meeting at Cheltenham the previous month saw de Bromhead added to the list and his involvement in the purchase of Honeysuckle meant that he was always going to be entrusted with this most prized of mares.

“A couple of years ago Kenny said he’d like to have a few horses in Ireland and Willie and Gordon were obvious choices so they got horses and then Kenny happened to meet Henry in Cheltenham,” says Molony.

“I’d been to school with Henry and having sold him horses I’d known him well for a long time and the rest, as they say, is history.

“From the very outset Henry was delighted with Honeysuckle and we knew before she ran for him that she was held in very good regard.”

In November 2018, Honeysuckle made a winning debut at odds-on in a Fairyhouse maiden hurdle and she then notched up two blacktype victories on her next two starts. A late setback was to rule her out of the mares’ novice at Cheltenham last year but more than ample compensation awaited the following month with a Grade 1 triumph at Fairyhouse over Easter.

Those efforts alone made Honeysuckle a mare of rare and distinguished quality but she has taken

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Honeysuckle leads over the last in the PCI Irish Champion Hurdle \ carolinenorris.ie

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PETER MOLONY things to a new level this season. A wide margin demolition of a pair of Grade 2 winners in a conditions event in November was followed by her tour de force in the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle.

For the last couple of winters Apple’s Jade has been the mare on everyone’s lips through the winter months but the first Sunday in December served notice that a new and equally potent force had emerged.

Grade 1 horses “As to what she has done, nobody could predict that.

She was obviously very promising before we got her but you can have plenty of very good horses through your hands and they never quite make it to being Grade 1 horses.

“We had hoped that maybe she could be a Grade 1 mare but I don’t think anyone could have predicted that she would achieve what she has so far and in a relatively short space of time as well,” remarks Molony.

The Mares’ Hurdle at Cheltenham had been the target for Honeysuckle this season but her battling success in the Irish Champion Hurdle in February has raised the possibility of her trying to complete a Champion Hurdle double in March.

At the time of writing connections were still undecided. Molony said: “A lot of water has to pass under the bridge before Cheltenham – it was only a few days before Cheltenham last year that Henry had to rule her out of the mares’ novice hurdle.

“In this game you take absolutely nothing for granted and you should never get too far ahead of yourself so hopefully she just comes through the next few weeks in good shape and it would be great to think that we could be going there with a mare who could compete in a Grade 1.”

As to the future for Honeysuckle and the other mares who have carried the Alexander silks to an ever increasing number of victories, there will be another career waiting for them when their racing days are over.

Quality band “For the last two or three years Kenny has been buying young mares to race with a view to then breeding from them and the hope is that we can build up a select and quality band of mares.

“Nothing is set in stone but I would imagine in due course the fillies out of these mares could be retained and the geldings will be sold. Most of Kenny’s horses are mares and he did have a couple of geldings with Gordon earlier in the season but they have both been sold on,” adds Molony.

It remains to be seen as to whether Honeysuckle can lower the colours of Benie Des Dieux but everything to date points to her being a major player on the opening day of jump racing’s greatest meeting and for Kenny Alexander and Peter Molony a victory there would represent the pinnacle of a still evolving yet already notably powerful outfit.

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Peter Molony and Goffs

A busy man on many fronts, Peter Molony joined the Goffs team eight years ago and in the intervening period much has changed in the National Hunt market.

In terms of Goffs, the company’s Land Rover Sale has moved to another level, the point-to-point scene has altered dramatically and the boutique Goffs Punchestown Sale, from which Honeysuckle emerged, has become firmly established as a leading source of quality stock.

“I started doing some work for Goffs around eight years ago. At the time my role was one of trying to attract new clients to Goffs with a view to maybe getting some of those high end three-yearolds who wouldn’t previously have appeared at the Land Rover Sale. I was mainly tasked with trying to attract some UK-based clients who wouldn’t have done business with Goffs,” recalls Molony.

As recent results will show the Land Rover has started to attract those high end three-yearold stores in plentiful amounts which has been reflected in some impressive trade at the sale over the last number of years.

“In terms of the Land Rover, it has been a great few years all of which is down to the hard work of a really excellent team at Goffs. Everyone has done a great job of moving the sale on to another level and I’d have to pay tribute to David Minton and Nicky Henderson. They saw what we were trying to do with the Land Rover and have really supported us and their support has been absolutely crucial to the sale.”

In terms of the various boutique National Hunt Sales, the Goffs portfolio boats two prime slots in the Aintree and Punchestown Sales. Both of these sales are now well established fixtures in a busy and crucial seven month period where the point-to-point fraternity bring their finest wares to the open market.

“The boutique auctions that we have now are a great outlet for quality young stock. The face of point-to-pointing has changed utterly over the last ten years and a significant part of that is down to what the boys in Wexford have done.

“The point-to-point boys are buying really good stock and these sales like the ones we have in Punchestown and Aintree are a vital outlet and market place for the point-to-point trainers.

“Honeysuckle, Champagne Classic, The Big Breakaway and Samcro are just four examples of what has come out of these sales and there will be many more over the next few years.”

PETER MOLONY

Henry de Bromhead and Peter Molony celebrating after Honeysuckle’s win at Leopardstown \carolinenorris.ie

The Molony family legacy at Cheltenham The Molony family’s association with Cheltenham is a long standing and impressive one that has spanned three quarters of a century.

Peter’s father, Martin, who is universally acclaimed as one of the greatest riders of his or any other era made his mark at the Festival when partnering Silver Fame to victory in the 1951 Cheltenham Gold Cup. Interestingly Silver Fame was trained by Goffs Chief Executive Henry Beeby’s grandfather, George.

Martin’s brother, Tim, rode 10 Cheltenham Festival winners and 1951 marked the start of an unprecedented sequence which saw him ride four consecutive winners of the Champion Hurdle.

This makes him the most successful rider in the

race’s history along with Ruby Walsh. For good measure Tim Molony also won the Gold Cup on Knock Hard in 1953.

Long after his riding career had been brought to a premature end, Martin Molony’s presence was felt back at Cheltenham in the 1970s as Bula, whom he bought for Ir1,380gns as an unbroken three-year-old, won the 1971 and 1972 Champion Hurdles.

Peter Molony has also enjoyed his share of success on National Hunt Racing’s biggest stage. Bobs Worth, whom he bought for €11,000 as a foal before selling him to Barry Geraghty for €16,500 the following year, won the Albert Bartlett in 2011, the RSA Chase in 2012 before climbing to the summit of jump racing in 2013.

For good measure, the 2013 Cross Country Chase winner Big Shu is a former Rathmore Stud graduate having been sold for €15,000 at the 2008 Land Rover Sale.

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