Cheltenham Review (Ian) -:

 

I think that any review of the Racing at Cheltenham this year (we'll cover off our own SP2A results on SUNDAY) has to begin with Willie Mullins. 10 winners in 4 days covering the 28 races, a total number of Cheltenham winners now in excess of 100. I must admit that like many I have been guilty of underestimating and certainly under-appreciating the enormity of his ability, performance and pure logistical planning to get to this point. If the sheer number and quality of his juvenile runners this year is anything to go by then his dominance is not going to wane anytime soon.

 

Granted he has outstanding and rich Owners, certainly JP McManus, another who we tend to not appreciate fully, but as we have seen in other Yards with similarly big benefactors and supposedly top class horses, you cannot buy "luck" and the regularity with which Mullins not only gets the best horses but gets them and keeps them fit and turns up tuned to the minute in some cases, deserves the highest of praise.

 

For a few years the ding-dong battle with Gordon Elliott was a recurring theme. The quiet, mildly mannered, immaculately presented ultra professional against the brash, loud and often boundary pushing upstart, that could equate as much to the Trainers as to the men funding them. As the interest and investment of O'Leary and Gigginstown have waned and faded , so others step up and become the new longer term challengers to Mullins. 

 

The alarm bells for Elliott have been there for some time, tired aging, fading handicappers winning occasionally at huge odds but basically filling up all of the BIG marquee Irish Chases in the season off old inflated marks, a completely false sense of security as the 9 year olds become 10 and 11 and now vanish off the map. Quite simply, whilst Elliott has seemingly grown lazy and complacent and failed to restock, not only has Mullins been restocking but others like De Bromhead, Cromwell and young O'Brien have been quietly and confidently been building the foundations of long term success.

 

De Bromhead, having encountered the sort of personal tragedy that would have finished a lesser man, burying his young son whilst Elliott was have his picture taken standing atop a deceased horse, not only defining the difference between class and respect and crass and disrespect, also may probably be the time at which those two Training operations flipped and changed from one upwardly and professionally mobile to another whose sun was rapidly setting. De Bromheads ability to target the Spring will hopefully remain but he will also become an increasing threat throughout the full season.

 

One Trainer who has worked his balls uff to try to join this top table is Gavin Cromwell. Year on year better results, reinvestment and better horses. I did say and think that this season he may have focussed more on "winning now" whilst others were "Spring race plotting" and that he may not succeed yet at Cheltenham as his ammunition would be over raced and over handicapped come the "Main Event". How wrong I was. A farrier by trade after he realised he was not made physically to be a jockey and after a spell in Australia this has been no "get rich quick" story. Twenty years after first taking out a license and 18 years after his first winner, he arrived at the pinnacle on Friday with a Gold Cup winner and every sign that he can remain in that sort of exalted company for many years to come.

 

Bubbling beneath these 4 are the likes of O'Brien, Emmet Mullins, Paul Nolan , Noel Meade and in a couple starting to crank up their performances Cian Collins and Phillip Fenton Trainers who are not to be underestimated.

 

If Irish Racing is now dominated by a top table of 4 and not just a couple, make no mistake, there are others building and waiting for their chances and the under-lying strength of Irish Jump racing is its double edge sword of QUALITY over QUANTITY and the fact that if horses are running in big competitive fields from day one, learning and developing the skills that needs, then they are always going to perform BETTER in cut and thrust races down the line against UK horses who may have spent their formative years in half pace tactical low paced races where the onus is on a finishing kick. This aspect is in my opinion fundamental and somethin that no one in the BHA can apparently see or wants to do nothing about, or both!

 

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Tomorrow we'll look at the UK horse / trainer performances, the good, the bad and the downright ugly media shit show that focuses in all of the wrong places and builds complacency and decline.