No Leopardstown miracle for Honeysuckle as mighty mare's time might have come

The Ted Walsh handbook of hilarious phrases had another entry yesterday. "This is Leopardstown, not Lourdes. You don't get miracles around here." Trust Ted to say it as it is.

The thing was, though, we didn't think she needed a miracle. Honeysuckle was rocking up to Leopardstown in search of a fourth Irish Champion Hurdle with her hordes of followers travelling more in expectation than hope. She was 2-1 in the morning, 11-8 at the off. Had the race been delayed another few minutes she might have gone off favourite. They still believed.

Honeysuckle was cheered out of the parade ring, cheered down to the start, cheered to the first hurdle but, when they wanted to cheer most, there was no point. It would have been a waste of energy. State Man was too good. That fact was inevitable throughout the entire home straight.