Henry de Bromhead and Rachael Blackmore off to the perfect start as Slade Steel comes good in festival opener

Willie Mullins is seen as the dominant force of modern-day Cheltenham Festivals and even though he did not win the Supreme, the victory of Slade Steel might have provided an indication of what was to come.

That is because connections of the winner were fearful of taking on the Mullins-trained Ballyburn in Wednesday's Gallagher Novices' Hurdle so opted to run in the Supreme and the decision came off in style.

Ridden by Rachael Blackmore, who has enjoyed major success with Henry de Bromhead, Slade Steel proved a length and a half too good for Mystical Power, a fancied 100-30 shot hailing from the Mullins stable, which was also responsible for the 11-4 favourite Tullyhill, who faded with a tame effort in eighth.

The Mullins camp can at least take heart from the fact the first winner of the 2024 festival has got nowhere near Ballyburn in two attempts. The first of those defeats resulted in a third against the Mullins hotpot in a Punchestown bumper in April before Ballyburn put Slade Steel well in his place at the Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown last month.

A jubilant Rachael Blackmore returns to the winner's enclosure on Slade SteelCredit: GROSSICK RACING

However, with his nemesis put away for Wednesday, Slade Steel was able to provide Blackmore and De Bromhead with their first victories in the Supreme, and he did so in the colours of Brian Acheson, who runs his horses under the banner of Robcour.

An understandably delighted De Bromhead said: "That's brilliant. I'm really happy with him. Rachael gave him a super ride and fair play to the Robcour team, who said Ballyburn has beaten us twice and we need to avoid him, so that's what we did.

"It's worked out really well for us. I think he'll be better on better ground, but it [being testing] helped him over two miles."

The fact Mystical Power idled after leading at the last also contributed to the victory of Slade Steel, who hit a high of 25 on Betfair in running, while the second, who was ahead of Firefox in third, was matched at 1.05, the equivalent of 1-20.

De Bromhead would not commit to plans for his latest potential ace, who may one day help replace retired stable superstars A Plus Tard and hurdling queen Honeysuckle.

"I'm not even going to go near answering that," he added. "Who knows? We'll see and enjoy today.

"He can be a bit lairy in front so I'd say Racheal wasn't too worried. Or not worried, but I'd say she wouldn't have minded having something to aim at after the last.

"The Robcour team was spot on saying Ballyburn had beaten us a couple of times and that was one thing we didn't need to do again; they were right."

Rachael Blackmore acknowledges the crowd on Slade SteelCredit: Edward Whitaker

De Bromhead also captured a Gold Cup with Minella Indo, who won it in 2021 the year before A Plus Tard, and he has three Champion Chases on his CV too.

He had, however, recently touched on having to replace those Galacticos, and said: "It's lovely to see young horses like him coming through. We're very fortunate with the support we get from everybody, we have gorgeous horses to train and, thankfully, we can get the odd result.

"This is an amazing place. It's special and we've had a lot of luck here. We're looked after so well and it's a cliche, but it is our Olympics and we're lucky to be able to take part. We can breathe a sigh of relief having trained the first winner, but we've never won the Supreme before so I don't know the feeling, although when you get one, you want two. He was one of our bigger ones coming in so it's great and a big team effort."

Earning his 22nd festival winner, the trainer, who is based in County Waterford, could not let the victory go by without praising his partner in crime Blackmore.

"She was superb, brilliant as usual," he continued. "She was as cool as a breeze and said she couldn't believe how well she was going turning in.

"He looked to be going so well going into the last that there was hope it could happen, although I'm not saying it would have happened."

It did, and De Bromhead's smile spoke volumes for how he felt.

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