Hennessy Gold Cup (Leopardstown)

The Irish Hennessy Gold Cup is a Grade 1 steeple-chase run at Leopardstown Racecourse over a distance of 3m with the horses taking on seventeen fences before crossing the finishing line. Leopardstown places host to twelve Grade 1 National Hunt races over the season, which include, as well as the Hennessy Gold Cup, the Lexus Chase and the Irish Champion Hurdle. Run in February each year, the race is open to horses aged five and above.

The 2011 running of the Hennessy Gold Cup had a prize pool of €103,500 with £89,224.14 going to the winning horse with prize-money being paid down to the horse finishing seventh. The Leopardstown Hennessy Gold Cup was first run in 1987 and won that year by the Jimmy Fitzgerald trained Forgive ‘n’ Forget, ridden by jockey Mark Dwyer. Mark Dwyer and Jimmy Fitzgerald were a formidable jockey/trainer combination, with Dwyer winning the majority of his near 1,000 races onboard Fitzgerald’s horses.

Irish Hennessy and Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Forgive ‘n’ Forget was probably Dwyer’s most famous partnership, but it was three back-to-back wins onboard the Peter Beaumont trained Jodami in the Irish Hennessy in 1993, 1994 and 1995 that makes Mark Dwyer the most successful jockey of the Irish Hennessy Gold Cup And it is Florida Pearl’s trainer Willie Mullins to takes the owner as leading trainer in the Irish Hennessy Gold Cup.  Based at Closutton in County Carlow in Ireland, Mullins has been training since 1998, big-race wins including Hedgehunter in the 2005 Grand National and Hurricane Fly in the 2011 Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.

Willie Mullins’ seven wins in the Irish Hennessy came with: Florida Pearl (1999, 2000, 2001 & 2004) Alexander Banquet (2002) Rule Supreme (2005) Kempes (2011) The 2011 running of the Irish Hennessy Gold Cup at Leopardstown was won by the eight year old bay gelding Kempes, trained by Willie Mullins and ridden by stand-in jockey David Casey after booked jockey, the champion jumps jockey AP McCoy, stood down at the last minute. Kempes went to post in the rescheduled Hennessy Gold Cup amongst a field of nine runners.  The race had been abandoned the week before due to heavy rain, and missing amongst the nine runners taking their chances this time were Cooldine and Paul Nicholl’s Pride of Dulcote, which has been favourite before the week before. The Paul Nolan trained Joncol went off 13/8f having won the race the year before.  And indeed Joncol started off well tracking the leaders before moving up into fourth around halfway.  Going into the second from home Joncol had improved into second, but after the last Glencove Marina had overtaken the one paced Joncol and kept on well under pressure, only Kempes the better by four and a half lengths. Sadly Kempes’ victory in the Irish Hennessy Gold cup was marred by two equine fatalities.  Second placed Glencove Marina, having run perhaps one of his greatest ever races collapsed and died little more than fifty yards after the finishing lines.  Trained by Eoin Griffin, Glencove Marina enjoyed eight wins during his career including the Grade 1 Landrover Champion Novice Hurdle at Punchestown in April 2007.  The other fatality was the Nicky Richard trained grey gelding Money Trix who had been tracking the leaders being pulled up badly injured after the sixth fence.  Sadly the horse had been found to have broken a leg and was later put down. The Irish Hennessy Gold Cup Steeple Chase – Leopardstown Racecourse Saturday, February 12th 2011