At soggy Newbury last Saturday racegoers were still reliving memories of an epic Cheltenham Festival. ‘Were you there for that mano a mano Gold Cup between Native River and Might Bite?’ people were asking each other. ‘With the likes of Presenting Percy, Balko Des Flos, Footpad, Samcro and Laurina flourishing are we ever going to beat the Irish at Cheltenham again?’ No excuses, then, for taking my first opportunity for Festival reflections, especially since Roksana, the winner of the most important event on the Newbury card, the Grade Two EBF and TBA Mares ‘National Hunt’ Novices’ Hurdle Finale, was ridden by Bridget Andrews. Her stylish victory underlined the first lesson of this year’s Festival: surely now we have to stop talking about ‘women jockeys’ as some kind of separate class and simply treat them as individual riders who happen to be female.
On favourite Coo Star Sivola in the Ultima Handicap Chase, Lizzie Kelly became the first woman professional to ride a Festival winner, at the same time zapping the mind-gnawing demons that had followed her second-fence unseating in the 2017 Gold Cup. Bridget Andrews, Dan Skelton’s stable conditional, swiftly became the second female professional to score at the Festival, winning the hotly contested County Hurdle on 33–1 outsider Mohaayed. Her in-saddle embrace from Dan’s jockey brother Harry was in no way over the top, prompting the quote of the Festival from their showjumper father Nick Skelton, who declared: ‘With a bit of luck, Harry will marry her — if he has any sense.’
But the fair sex didn’t stop there. Irish amateur Katie Walsh rode Willie Mullins’s 25–1 Relegate to win the Champion Bumper (a Flat race for National Hunt horses) and score her fourth success at the Festival.
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