Cheltenham Festival 2017 – Henry De Bromhead taking his strongest ever team to the Festival including Irish Champion Hurdle winner Petit Mouchoir

SOME doom-mongerers reckon Brexit will hit the country hard.

But Irish trainer Henry De Bromhead’s own split with Europe has worked out better than he could ever have hoped.

Owners Alan and Ann Potts, who enjoyed memorable success with Sizing Europe, decided to quit the trainer last summer.

At the time it was a massive blow to De Bromhead, who had celebrated ten Grade 1 wins with horses in the familiar yellow, green and red silks — eight of those with 2011 Champion Chase hero Sizing Europe.

What better pick-me-up, then, for the County Waterford trainer than Ryanair owner Michael O’Leary sending him a host of quality horses just days later, after his own much-publicised spat with Willie Mullins.

And the move has handed De Bromhead another potential star who could propel him back to the heady days of Sizing Europe.

Among the horses O’Leary transferred to De Bromhead was grey Petit Mouchoir, twice runner-up in Grade 1 hurdles at Aintree and Punchestown.

The six-year-old fell on his first start for the trainer in Newcastle’s Fighting Fifth when looming ominously into contention.

But he quickly put that behind him and racked up two impressive wins in the Ryanair Hurdle and Irish Champion Hurdle.

He is now a 5-1 shot for the Champion Hurdle.

De Bromhead said: “He’s had a fantastic season already. He won his last two, and has done nothing wrong bar Newcastle when he was a bit disappointing.

“But he seemed to be going well in that race before falling, so who knows where he would have finished.

“Then when he went to Leopardstown he did what we had hoped he’d do at Newcastle. It does look an open race this year and I would never be overly confident, but he is in good form and we are looking forward to a good run from him.”

The absence of former winners Faugheen and Annie Power has thrown the race wide open.

De Bromhead added: “Favourite Buveur d’Air did beat our lad in the Supreme and at Aintree, but I think ours has improved this year and he’s done very little wrong so he deserves his place in the market.”

De Bromhead, 44, started out on the breeding side, working for Coolmore in Ireland before spells with trainers Sir Mark Prescott and Robert Alner in the UK.

He then took over the licence at his Knockeen yard from his dad Harry in 2000.

De Bromhead jnr can well remember family Cheltenham Festival success back in 1993.

He said: “I went over for the first time in 1993 and we won what is now the Pertemps with Fissure Seal. Charlie Swan rode him, he was top jockey that year.”

His long association with the Potts was key to De Bromhead’s success. But humble Henry took the split in his stride.

“We wish them the best of luck,” he said at the time.

“Alan and Ann have been great supporters but things move on.”

Indeed they have.

De Bromhead has since gone on to have his best-ever season, racking up 65 winners. He is currently sitting third in the Irish trainers’ table.

He said: “We’d already been sent a few of the horses we have now when we lost the others, so we knew we’d still have a nice bunch.

“Losing owners is always something you worry about. But it’s been a fantastic season since.

“We’ve been fortunate this year, we’ve got some really nice horses and we’re lucky to be in the position we’re in.”

De Bromhead is heading to Cheltenham with arguably his strongest team ever.

And Champagne West could be the star of the show if he can spring a Gold Cup surprise.

He said: “Champagne West has done very little wrong this year.

“He won well at Tramore and was then was really impressive in the Thyestes. It’s not easy to win the Thyestes off a mark of 154 and he’s now 166.

“He’s got good form around Cheltenham already, there is still a little question mark over his jumping, he made a mistake five out at Gowran but, other than that, he’s going well and I think we are getting there with his jumping issues, he’s a lovely big galloping horse.

“It’s very open when you see how closely they’re rated and it’s very competitive.”

If there’s one thing De Bromhead won’t be doing at Cheltenham this year, it’s running scared of just one horse.

In fact, he is set to send three of his best novice chasers to do battle with hot favourite Altior in the Arkle.

He said: “Altior was hugely impressive and has been all season and will obviously be very hard to beat.

“But I’d hate to go into the race thinking we’re only there to pick up some place money.

“I’m running to win. I’m not saying I’m confident, but I would never go out with that attitude so we’re likely to run three in the race and they’re all very decent.

“We’ve got Some Plan, Three Stars and Ordinary World, who was second to Min on ground he wouldn’t have been mad about at Christmas.

“For all of them probably the better the ground the better their chances and they are three really nice horses.

“And I’d also hate Special Tiara to be forgotten.

“He’s in mighty form and he will go for the Champion Chase again up against Douvan.

“He loves the game, he’s been third in the race for the last two years although I’m still not sure how he wasn’t second last year!

“He’s a very good horse in his own right and I’m really looking forward to seeing him running.

“We also have Monalee who is a lovely nice young horse and we like him a lot. He’s in the Neptune and the Albert Bartlett and he won well at Clonmel over three miles last time.

“He was beaten by Death Duty over two and a half so we are weighing up whether we want to take Death Duty on again but the three miles will suit him better.

“The dream is he could be a Gold Cup horse, but we’ll have to just wait and see.”

It may be just a dream for now but the stats prove that life after De Bromhead’s European union is anything but a nightmare.