Why I fear for Cheltenham Festival

The London Times of 10 March 1922 drily recorded: ‘It is very seldom that Irish racing and hunting people make a determined attack on an English meeting without paying at least their expenses. One gathers that they did more than that yesterday.’ The Times was chronicling Connemara Black’s triumph in the Foxhunters’ Challenge Cup – a victory greeted as Ireland’s first at Cheltenham.

Things have moved on since then and at last year’s Cheltenham Festival Irish-trained horses won 18 of the 28 races, not quite as spectacular as their feat of winning 23 in 2021 but still a phenomenon that had England’s racing fraternity scratching around feverishly for excuses. When the Anglo-Irish rivalry renews at this year’s Festival, few are expecting a different outcome: the Irish are 9-1 on to prevail again. Looking at races that set up the champions of the future, there is just one English-trained horse in the first seven quoted for the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.