Colin Keane is set to sample Cheltenham’s magic for the first time when riding in the festival’s Champion Bumper, but before that, he has an important family date in Dubai on Saturday.
Ireland’s six-time champion jockey will be at Meydan to ride Crystal Black for his father Gerry in the Group Two Dubai City Of Gold Stakes. His opposition includes no less than Godolphin’s globe-trotting superstar, Rebel’s Romance.
The Keanes’ 2024 Royal Ascot winner has raced twice in Meydan already this winter but has to step up significantly from his run behind Al Nayyir last week.
Rebel’s Romance won two more Group One prizes in 2025 and only Ethical Diamond prevented him recording a third success in the Breeders’ Cup Turf in Santa Anita. The upcoming Sheema Classic on World Cup night at Meydan is his first major target of 2026.
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“He is eight now, but you couldn’t knock his performances last season,” said trainer Charlie Appleby. “He appears to have retained all his enthusiasm throughout the winter. I’m hoping that he can show us once again what he can do and everyone can appreciate what a great racehorse he is.”
That race is off at 5.10pm and there will be other Irish interest earlier in the day when Johnny Murtagh’s Solonaway Stakes winner Alakazai lines up under Ben Coen in the Group Two Singspiel Stakes, also worth over €320,000 in prize money.
Alakazi wound up running an admirable third last year to the shock winner Cicero’s Gift in the QEII at Ascot on British Champions Day.
Quddwah was well behind him on that occasion and lines up against Alakazi again, but with the benefit of a couple of runs in the Middle East already this winter and Ryan Moore on his back.
“He didn’t really get a clear run in Abu Dhabi (in his last start),” said Quddwah’s trainer, Ed Crisford. “He was drawn badly and he was on the wing and he ran a nice race, but I just felt circumstances went against him. He’s in great order, he did well on this track in January and I’m sure he’ll run a very solid race.”
During his riding days, Murtagh was one of Ireland’s champion flat jockeys, who competed at jump racing’s biggest fixture of the year in Cheltenham and finished runner-up on Golden Cross in the 2006 Stayers Hurdle.
The late Pat Smullen was another who lined up at Cheltenham, memorably finishing third in the Champion Bumper on Rite Of Passage, the pairing later winning the Ascot Gold Cup.
The upcoming festival will see Keane try his luck in the same race aboard his long-time ally Noel Meade’s The Mourne Rambler. The horse was an impressive winner at Leopardstown on St Stephens Day and is a general 16/1 to score at Cheltenham.
“I actually sat on him the other evening after racing in Fairyhouse, he did probably his last main piece,” Keane told the Nick Luck Podcast. “He looked good in Leopardstown, and he feels like a nice horse from what I sat on anyway.
“I said to Noel afterwards that he feels like he could be running on the Flat during the summer if he wanted him to, very straightforward but he’s not a slow horse. I’m looking forward to him now.
“I watch a lot of the good National Hunt racing but yeah, Cheltenham is something I’ve always watched.”
Jamie Spencer remains the only flat rider to partner a winner of the Champion Hurdle, steering the late Edward O’Grady’s Pizarro to victory in 2002. Others to try but not succeed include Richard Hughes and Kieren Fallon.
