Will the Irish team dominate at Cheltenham in 2022?
To make betting pay at Cheltenham, it is not enough to know that the Irish dominate. Punters should know why that is
Competition between British and Irish trainers has been a long-running trend at the Cheltenham Festival. Across last season, 46 per cent of all Irish-trained jumps runners in Britain were at Cheltenham in March. This is the meeting where Britain and Ireland truly go head-to-head.
Last season the rivalry got a bit less friendly. Of the 28 winners across the week, 23 had come from Ireland with a meagre five being home-trained. The ramifications have spread across the current jumps season and have led to plenty of soul-searching on the British side.
It looks like 2022 will be a case of damage limitation. Ireland are 1-9 for the Prestbury Cup, the trophy given to the country that has more winners across the week. Irish commentators crow about the prospect of Ireland’s champion trainer, Willie Mullins, training more Cheltenham winners than all British trainers combined. He did it last year.
What is interesting is that Britain, a bit like a trailing Ryder Cup team, have front-loaded their order. Nicky Henderson has Constitution Hill and Jonbon in a red-hot Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, the Alan King-trained Edwardstone is favourite for the Arkle and the Ultima Handicap Chase has not been won by an Irish-trained horse since 2006. Britain could easily be 3-0 by the time the first ‘Irish banker’, Champion Hurdle favourite Honeysuckle, steps out onto the track.
That is not to say 1-9 is a wrong price. Ireland clearly holds the stronger hand across the week, with not just Mullins runners but Gordon Elliott’s always-powerful Cheltenham squad and Henry de Bromhead, who last year took three of the four championship races. Gavin Cromwell and Joseph O’Brien could also lay claim to a squad that all but a small handful of British trainers would envy.
Ireland are particularly dominant with hurdlers- all five of Britain’s winners in 2021 were in races over fences. In handicap hurdles especially, over the last five years the score has been 19-6 to Ireland. Watch out for Mullins-trained runners in the Martin Pipe and County Hurdle, he has won each race four times, while Elliott’s best record is in the Pertemps Final and Boodles (three wins in each).
