History maker Keane claims HRI award

History maker Colin Keane and Group 1 winning trainer Ado McGuinness were among the winners at the 2021 Horse Racing Ireland Awards which were broadcast last night.

Trim jockey Keane won the Flat Award on the back of his starring performance during the 2021 Irish Flat Season which he dominated from a jockeys point of view as he captured a third riders’ title.

The Trim man notched up the fastest century of winners, bettered Joseph O’Brien’s 2013 total of 126 and then set a new record of 141 winners with a final day double at Naas.

Ado McGuinness won the Flat Achievement Award for his late season success with A Case Of You in the Prix De l’Abbaye.

The Lusk-based trainer enjoyed significant premier handicap, Listed and Group race wins in the preceding months but reached a new level as the Gary Devlin-owned three-year-old scored a memorable last-gasp Group 1 victory at ParisLongchamp in October.

For her tireless work in ensuring that racing continued to run smoothly and safely during the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr Jennifer Pugh, Senior Medical Officer of the IHRB, has been honoured with the Contribution to the Industry Award while Rachael Blackmore was previously announced this year’s Racing Hero Award winner.

The 10 winners of the 19th annual HRI awards were:

Contribution to the Industry Award: Dr Jennifer Pugh

Irish Racing Hero Award: Rachael Blackmore

Horse of the Year Award: Honeysuckle

Emerging Talent Award: Dylan Browne McMonagle

National Hunt Award: Henry de Bromhead

National Hunt Achievement Award: Paul Hennessy

Point-to-Point Award: John Nallen

Flat Award: Colin Keane

Flat Achievement Award: Ado McGuinness

Ride of the Year: Darragh O'Keeffe

Henry de Bromhead won the National Hunt Award. In March, he broke new ground when becoming the first trainer to win the Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase and the Gold Cup at the Cheltenham Festival in the same year. He again rewrote the record books a matter of weeks later when becoming only the second trainer, and the first since 1908, to saddle the first two horses home in the Aintree Grand National.

The Kenny Alexander-owned Honeysuckle again won all before her and took the Horse of the Year Award.

Easily the most popular horse in training, she topped a remarkable season with success in the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. She rounded off last season when winning the Champion Hurdle at Punchestown at the end of April and made a stunning start to her 2021/2022 campaign with a third successive win in the Grade 1 baroneracing.com Hatton’s Grace Hurdle at Fairyhouse last month.

From Letterkenny, Co Donegal, Dylan Browne McMonagle crowned a terrific year with the Emerging Talent Award.

He rode an impressive 48 winners to become champion apprentice and his season’s highlights included a first Group race success on Baron Samedi and a first win at Listed level with Mighty Blue, two of the 24 winners he rode during the season for Joseph O'Brien.

Success at both the Dublin Racing Festival and the Cheltenham Festival with Heaven Help Us saw Paul Hennessy win the National Hunt Achievement Award. The mare was one of the star performers at the beginning of the year, racing to victory in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Paddy Mullins Mares Handicap Hurdle at Leopardstown before winning the Coral Cup by all of nine lengths at Cheltenham. The John Turner-owned seven-year-old was ridden on each occasion by Richie Condon.

John Nallen had three weeks last spring that will last a lifetime and won the Point-to-Point Award.

Two horses that started out with him in the point-to-pointing field went on to win two of the biggest prizes in racing.

Minella Indo, which had made a winning debut for the Clonmel hotelier in a five-year-old maiden at Dromahane in March 2018, won the Cheltenham Gold Cup almost three years to the day of his initial success and three weeks later it was the turn of Minella Times to propel John back into the spotlight when racing to Grand National success at Aintree.

The 2021 Ride Of The Year Award was a public vote and Darragh O'Keeffe’s winning effort on A Plus Tard in the Savills Chase at last year’s Leopardstown Christmas Festival came out on top.

It was Darragh’s first outing in a Grade 1 race and he made the most of the opportunity to land one of the biggest races of the National Hunt season.