Talking Horses: Britain v Ireland at Cheltenham could be one-sided battle

T he 2023 Cheltenham Festival opens two weeks on Tuesday, the significant trials have all been run and the ante-post markets suggest that British jumping stables face another almighty pasting at the hands of their Irish counterparts in the west country next month.

Ireland left Cheltenham with “just” 18 of the 28 winners last year, five down on their record haul of 23 in 2021. Any lingering hopes on the home side that Irish dominance might be waning, however, now seem woefully premature. Just six of the 28 races at next month’s meeting have a British-trained favourite, while Willie Mullins alone has the favourite or joint-favourite in 13. Ireland’s perennial champion is quoted at around 7-4 to either equal or extend his own record of 10 winners at a single Festival, which he set 12 months ago, and could conceivably get the dozen he needs to become the first trainer to saddle 100 Festival winners.

It is quite the contrast with Britain’s current champion, Paul Nicholls, who has topped the trainer’s table 11 times in all, including three of the last four campaigns.

Nicholls has drawn a blank at the last two Festivals, has saddled a total of 45 runners at the meeting without success since Politologue supplied his only win of the 2020 meeting in the Champion Chase, and had just nine runners in total in 2022, just one of which even reached the frame.

Leicester 2.00 Great Heart’Jac 2.30 Auditoria 3.00 Flann 3.30 Keplerian 4.00 Solomon Grey 4.30 Santon 

Catterick Bridge2.15 Mortlach 2.45 Kavanaghs Cross 3.15 Sabbathical 3.45 Chase A Fortune 4.15 Betty Baloo 4.45 Golden Cosmos 

Southwell 5.00 The Tron 5.30 Sugar Hill Babe 6.00 Six Strings 6.30 Mighty River (nb) 7.00 Local Bay 7.30 Galileo Glass 8.00 Elisheva (nap) 8.30 Billian