timeFlat action on grass has begun with less than six weeks until the first Classic of 2024, but Ireland’s dominance at the Cheltenham Festival remains a hotly debated issue for many years. Thanks largely to Grand National winning trainer Dr Richard Newland, in a blog posted on the Racing TV website last week, he appeared to suggest that Irish-trained runners in the UK should be severely restricted and possibly banned altogether.
“Personally,” Newland wrote, “I want that blanket [ban] For all races. But if we allowed them to compete once a year in the UK, maybe at the Cheltenham Festival, maybe allow one entrant per coach in each competition – rather than coming in every Saturday and winning everything . “
Putting aside the fact that only 3% of the UK’s National Hunt runners in 2023 are trained in Ireland, so the Irish are not in fact “coming here every Saturday and winning it all” and even the idea of a partial ban on Irish-British trained Runners are an affront to the fundamental principles of competition and friendly international competition that have been an essential part of racing under both rules since the birth of the sport.
It would be a despicable and embarrassing act if British Jumping failed altogether, rendering March’s 14-race championship at Cheltenham a non-starter in name only and depriving the festival event of its status as the pinnacle of the sport.
For these reasons and many others, this simply won’t happen. Collaboration rather than isolationism is the only realistic approach, and with the UK being Ireland’s largest vaulting market, the Irish are also aware that the current imbalance cannot continue indefinitely. If the British set up roadblocks at Holyhead, they would be less willing to engage – for example, in a pattern of over-integration of graded races.
quick guide
Greg Wood’s Tuesday Tips
exhibit
Taunton
2.20 dazzling moment 2.50 Ryan’s Rockets 3.20 juliet 3.50 Wolf of Morde 4.20 Amelia’s Dance (Napping) 4.50 come on duberles 5.20 oakley road
new castle
2.35 police officer 3.05 Benefited a lot 3.35 Hello judge 4.05 May Clown 4.35 Youshan Waterfall 5.05 river corner
southwell
4.15 further measures 4.45 clay shovel 5.15 so obsessed 5.45 Who are you6.15 Asinara 6.45 Swiss Ace(nb) 7.15 the real mackay 7.45 storm assets 8.15 hawaii
But if we’ve reached the stage where senior coaches are calling for a ban on Ireland-trained runners, it’s anyone’s guess what we could be spiraling into hysteria and blindness if – or rather when – Ireland’s lead continues Level of panic. At least for the next season or two.
The Grand National Convention on April 13, for example, is likely to recruit more converts to the isolationist cause. Ahead of the next announcement period on Tuesday, no fewer than 29 of the first 34 horses are on the list – ie. Those guaranteed to compete are training in Ireland, while the remaining five training in the UK have been ruled out.
Willie Mullins, meanwhile, alone occupies 10 of the top 34 spots, raising another interesting possibility for the Englishman to ponder.
Dan Skelton, with £2,566,293 in prize money, holds a narrow lead in the Trainers’ Championship ahead of Monday’s race, just ahead of his former boss Paul Nicholls £59,000, with the latter aiming for a 15th title in the last 19 years.
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Mullins, who remains £650,000 behind the leader with a month to go after winning nine races at the festival, has taken 14 wins in the UK this season. However, at nationals, if he can go one-two, and maybe a few minor spots, it could put him alongside the leaders.
Mullins has largely stopped playing the Aintree Festival in recent years, preferring to reserve his steady stardom for Punchestown a few weeks later. But in the 2016 event, he had 34 entrants, six winners, and he was in a title fight with Nichols that lasted until the final week.
Vincent O’Brien in 1953-54 was the last Irish trainer to win the British Handicap Championship, Mullins remained a relative outsider with 12 wins to 1 The negative score narrows a 70-year gap. Nicholls and Skelton are sure to get plenty of smaller pots in the coming weeks and there will be some ideal runners in the Aintree Group One.
However, a few weeks ago Mullins became the first trainer to win 100 races at the Cheltenham Festival, and if Mullins can fight for the title in the final seconds, it will set up another extraordinary season. Finishes with a glamorous glow. Of course, Aidan O’Brien has been crowned British Flat Champion six times since 2001, but no one is calling for Irish horses to be banned from racing at Ascot, York and Goodwood. However, in the current frenetic climate, that may be more than the fragile egos of some English coaches can bear.
