De Bromhead chases Grand National-Gold Cup double

LONDON: Henry de Bromhead has the Cheltenham Gold Cup trophy sitting in pride of place in his kitchen but will not tempt fate and imagine the Grand National prize will be beside it on Sunday.

The 48-year-old Irishman has three runners in Saturday’s race at Aintree including Minella Times, the ride of Rachael Blackmore, who helped him rip up the record books at last month’s Cheltenham Festival.

He told AFP he was still “pinching himself” after becoming the first trainer to win the “Holy Trinity” at the event in southwest England.

Honeysuckle triumphed in the Champion Hurdle, with Blackmore becoming the first female jockey to win the race. Put The Kettle On took the Queen Mother Champion Chase and Minella Indo led home a De Bromhead 1-2 in the blue riband Gold Cup.

“Coming to the last I said to myself ‘I am not going to win the Gold Cup — Al Boum Photo will catch my two’,” he said.

“But he did not and then I went numb and it was utter disbelief.”

De Bromhead marked his success in low-key fashion, travelling back to Ireland alone on the ferry to be reunited with wife Heather and their three children, 12-year-old twins Jack and Mia and Georgia, 10.

That suits the man who defines himself as “unexciting” despite his success in the sport.

“I think like many of us I got rid of my exciting side when I was young,” he laughs.

De Bromhead also has some remarkable colour in his family background — British army officer Gonville Bromhead was awarded the nation’s highest military honour, the Victoria Cross, for his role in the defence of Rorke’s Drift in 1879.

British soldiers were outnumbered by Zulu warriors in the battle in South Africa and the lieutenant’s role was immortalised by Michael Caine in the epic film “Zulu”.

As well as the high points in his career as a trainer, De Bromhead has also gone through tough times.

In 2008 his hot favourite for the Champion Hurdle, Sizing Europe, flopped and in 2017 he watched as Sizing John, a horse who had been removed from his charge by the owners, won the Gold Cup.

“I am a natural pessimist,” he said. “There are a lot of things that go wrong in racing, especially in National Hunt (jumps).