Unbeaten mare Honeysuckle added the Horse of the Year accolade to her impressive list of prizes at the Horse Racing Ireland awards, while her trainer Henry de Bromhead and jockey Rachael Blackmore were also honoured.
Honeysuckle topped a remarkable campaign with success in the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in March. She rounded off last season when winning the Champion Hurdle at Punchestown at the end of April and made a stunning start to this term with a third successive win in the Grade One baroneracing.com Hatton's Grace Hurdle at Fairyhouse last month.
De Bromhead was the winner of 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 Grand National.
Blackmore was previously announced this year's Irish Racing Hero Award winner on the back of an outstanding year that saw her crowned the leading jockey at the Cheltenham Festival only weeks before her Grand National win.
The Flat Award went to champion jockey Colin Keane. Keane was the star performer of the Flat season, dominating from a jockey point of view, as he captured a third riders' title. He 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.
The Ride Of The Year Award came via a public vote and went to Darragh O'Keeffe for his winning effort on A Plus Tard in the Savills Chase at last year’s Leopardstown Christmas Festival. It was O'Keeffe’s first outing in a Grade One race and he made the most of the opportunity to land one of the biggest races of the National Hunt season.
Dylan Browne McMonagle (Emerging Talent Award), Paul Hennessy (National Hunt Achievement Award), John Nallen (Point-to-Point Award) and Ado McGuinness (Flat Achievement Award) were also winners on the evening, while the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board's Dr Jennifer Pugh landed the Contribution to the Industry Award for her role in ensuring that racing continued to run smoothly and safely during the Covid-19 pandemic.
HRI chief executive Suzanne Eade said: "I am delighted that we can pay tribute to those who achieved so much and made such telling contributions to our wonderful industry in the past 12 months.
"Jennifer and Rachael have been two of our leading lights and their awards are so well deserved.
"As we saw at Fairyhouse only a few weeks ago, Honeysuckle is certainly the darling of the racing public and I congratulate her owner Kenny Alexander on her achievement in winning the Horse of the Year Award."
