Just short of 25,000 people attended the Dublin Racing Festival last weekend as Honeysuckle and Rachael Blackmore delighted their legion of fans in the Chanelle Pharma Irish Champion Hurdle on Sunday.

The wonder mare made it a hat-trick of wins in the Grade 1 two-mile contest and made it an unbeaten 14 wins in all, breaking the great hurdler Bula’s record in the process. The pair were given a rapturous reception, cheered by a packed grandstand on their way down to the start and more vociferously on their return to a parade ring, which was packed 10-deep around the winners enclosure.

“Ah man, it’s unbelievable,” Blackmore said in the immediate aftermath of the race. “We’re so lucky to be involved with her. Me to be riding her, Henry (de Bromhead) to be training her and Kenny (Alexander) to be owning her.

“I’ve never got a reception like that cantering to the start. It’s incredible. I had chills in my veins cantering down to the start listening to everyone. She’s an unbelievable mare.

Honeysuckle and Rachael Blackmore return to the winners enclosure at Leopardstown. \ carolinenorris.ie

“Kenny text me last night and said, ‘She owes us nothing, just go out and enjoy it,’ and it’s lovely to be riding for those kind of people.

“The crowds are what make it – where else would you get it?”

The adulation for Honeysuckle has transcended racing and now she is a best priced 4/7 shot to make it two Champion Hurdles in a row at Cheltenham, where the reception she receives will be even bigger again, paling in comparison to the empty grandstands she raced in front of last year.

Saturday’s feature contest, the Irish Gold Cup, produced an upset when Gordon Elliott’s 18/1 shot Conflated was a class apart from his rivals. The Gigginstown Stud-owned chaser jumped and travelled beautifully for Davy Russell, and the pair had all their rivals in trouble turning for home. They ran out six-length winners in the end from Gold Cup winner Minella Indo, who ran very promisingly in second.

The winners enclosure at Leopardstown. \ Healy Racing

Elsewhere throughout the weekend, it was the Willie Mullins show. The champion trainer dominated the Grade 1s with Minella Cocooner, Vauban, Blue Lord, Galopin Des Champs, Chacun Pour Soi and Sir Gerhard all going in. His other winner was in the Grade 2 Goffs Bumper with Facile Vega, arguably the most impressive of the lot. That son of Quevega, whom Mullins trained to win six Mares Hurdles at Cheltenham, is now odds on with most bookmakers for the Champion Bumper next month.

There were 12,957 people at Leopardstown on Saturday and 11,972 on Sunday for a total of 24,929, down 1,500 on the 2020 figure. Given the poor weather and the clash with the Ireland-Wales Six Nations rugby fixture on Saturday, the figures look healthy, though plenty who attended the first day were left disappointed by long-waiting times at the bars, with the course feeling the impact of a staffing crisis evident in hospitality sectors around the country.