Rathvinden

Horses | Last ran in 2019
Dam - Peggy Cullen
Sire - Heron Island
Dam's Sire - Presenting
Born - 2008

Rathvinden Grand National Wins

Rathvinden has never won the Grand National.

Their best finish to date was in 2019 where they came 3rd. They were ridden by Ruby Walsh and trained by Willie Mullins.

Boasting a Sire and a Dam from Ireland and a Dam’s Sire from the United Kingdom, it’s fair to say that Rathvinden is the definition of a horse that has the best of both worlds from a homegrown point of view. Having begun life as a point-to-point runner, Rathvinden developed into a strong stayer that performed well in National Hunt chases.

Rathvinden began life under the trainer I R Ferguson, falling in his first race before winning his second and then moving over to the stables of Willie Mullins. He won his first two runs under the Irishman, too, in a manner that led many to believe that he was a horse to watch out for for the future. He promptly fell in his third race for Mullins but when he finished 2nd and then 3rd in two successive races at Cheltenham the racing world began to sit up and take notice.

 

Full Results

Year Result Prize Money Handicap Jockey Trainer
2019 3 £100,000 11-00 Ruby Walsh Willie Mullins

A Good Relationship With Cheltenham

The best test for horses in National Hunt jump racing is the Cheltenham Festival, so you can learn a lot about a horse by looking at how they’ve done at the Gloucestershire course in the past. Rathvinden’s first experience of it began in the 2 mile, 4 furlong Neptune Investment Management Novices’ Hurdle in January of 2014, where he ran smoothly and had a decent chance over the last only to lose out to Red Sherlock.

That was in the Festival Trials, so how would he do when moved up to the Festival proper? Just as well, is the answer. He finished 2nd from 6 two months later and he ran in the same race during the Festival, coming 3rd in a field of 15 in the Neptune Investment Management Novices’ Hurdle and actually beating Red Sherlock quite comfortably. He didn’t really have a chance of winning but pushed well for 2nd and was unlucky to miss out.

Rathvinden flickr
flickr

A Solid Jump Horse

Rathvinden didn’t actually return to Cheltenham for four years after his performance in the Trials and Festival in 2014, but during that time he learnt how to cope with the various tests thrown at horses by the jump circuit. He won back-to-back races at Wexford and Galway before a 3rd place finish at Killarney was sandwiched between another pair of wins at Listowel and Tipperary.

He began to develop a reputation as a jumper that was backed up by a win in the 3 mile, 7 furlong National Hunt Challenge Cup Amateur Riders’ Novices’ Chase during the Cheltenham Festival of 2018. He managed that victory in spite of a mistake at the 11th, getting himself to the front over the last and holding on well to win. The year after he won the Bobbyjo Chase at Fairyhouse before going on to earn a hard-fought third place finish at the 2019 Grand National.