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Rachael joins Betfair ahead of the Dublin Racing Festival
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Honeysuckle the star attraction on Sunday
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Rachael and team 'couldn't be happier' with star mare
I'm delighted to be joining the team as a Betfair ambassador!
I look forward to providing you with my thoughts in the weeks and months ahead.
This is a really exciting time of the season too, just before the Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown. The National Hunt season is in full swing now and there are obviously a few big meetings coming up!
It's some weekend ahead at Leopardstown. The Dublin Racing Festival really has established itself as a major event on the National Hunt racing calendar, in a relatively short space of time. The first Dublin Racing Festival was only in 2018.
It used to be that there were three big meetings at Leopardstown in January and February, with the Irish Champion Hurdle meeting in January and the Irish Gold Cup meeting in February. Now they are all together in one weekend, and that makes sense.
Eight Grade 1 races, about five weeks after the Christmas festivals and about five weeks before the Cheltenham Festival. The timing is perfect, the prize money is there, and it looks like the horses will be there. It's going to be a weekend of top class National Hunt racing.
I am obviously really looking forward to riding Honeysuckle again in the Chanelle Pharma Irish Champion Hurdle. Last year was magic.
The reception that the people gave her. Even before the race, the reaction of the crowd, the sense of anticipation in the parade ring beforehand.
I got the feeling that the whole crowd was on her side. And when she won, coming back into the winner's enclosure, that was unbelievable. I just felt privileged to be a part of it. It was a day in racing that I will never forget.
Of course, that was last year. Fairyhouse was disappointing, it was disappointing that she was beaten in the Hatton's Grace Hurdle, even if she did put up a very good performance in defeat.
But she's in great form going into the weekend. Henry is happy with her, and Colman Comerford, who knows her as well as anyone knows her, is very happy with her. She seems to be as good as ever.
It looks like a very good race, as you would expect for an Irish Champion Hurdle. State Man has won the Morgiana Hurdle and the Matheson Hurdle this season, and Vauban ran really well in the Matheson Hurdle on his seasonal debut.
But we couldn't be happier with Honeysuckle.
As everybody knows, she is an unbelievable mare, she is what every jockey dreams of getting to ride. I am just so lucky to be associated with her, and I hope that she can put up another big performance on Sunday.
It's great to be going into a meeting like the Dublin Racing Festival with a horse like Honeysuckle to ride. I hope to have a few other good rides over the course of the weekend too, and I will be back on Friday with my thoughts on them.