CHELTENHAM REVIEW - UK Trainers

 

On ITV late on the Friday afternoon after Willie Mullins had dominated the final day a graphic appeared -: Willie Mullins 10 UK Trainers 8.

 

It rather summed up another frustrating Cheltenham for the Home side.

 

It had all started rather well for the Home Team on Tuesday with winners for Henderson, Lucinda Russell, Jeremy Scott and Rebecca Curtis. A sole win for the Skelton team on the Wednesday and wins for Henderson; Paul Nicholls and Oliver Greenall on the Thursday preceded the awful Friday.

 

Whilst I think it is only fair to congratulate the likes of Lucinda Russell, Jeremy Scott, Rebecca Curtis and Oliver Greenall for their wins, with particular focus on the ability of Curtis and Russell to train a horse for the day at Cheltenham to the minute, and to commend both Scott and the fast emerging Greenall, I think it really does expose the paucity of winners from the big UK yards

 

Henderson as always was never far away in the Handicaps, Nicholls by his own admission is "in transition" but it will be a worry for all at Ditcheat that we've been saying that for 2-3 seasons despite his wonderful ability to win UK Trainers Titles often against the Odds and Skelton, the pupil is clearly now a significant and improving threat to Nicholls and also Henderson.

 

However, just let me reel off the list of current UK Trainers in order of their 2024-25 winnings who did not find a Cheltenham winner, despite big prize money prior to the Festival

 

Olly Murphy, Nigel Twiston-Davies, Venetia Williams, Jonjo O'Neill, Fergal O'Brien, Ben Pauling , Joe Tizzard, Gary Moore, Jamie Snowden, Donald McCain,  

Alan King, David Pipe , Neil Mulholland, Antony Honeyball, Phillip Hobbs, Evan Williams, Sam Thomas , Harry Derham, Emma Lavelle and Peter Bowen.

 

Now you could categorise them as some long standing Trainers like Jonjo , King , Hobbs , Pipe - possibly no longer as good as they were, some really upwardly mobile ones like Murphy , Pauling , Snowden , Derham who can be excused and may need a few more years and then the rest, who if they have the right horse CAN deliver a Cheltenham winner. Fundamentally though you have to again ask WHY are the Irish so dominant. 

 

In my next article I will consider the obvious answers like the patronage that Mullins gets and Elliott got, the rare skills of De Bromhead and Cromwell. We'll also look at the issues affecting the UK Trainers in terms of Owners, but I also want to delve down in to 2 fundamental questions

 

(1) Is Premier Racing creating a false ceiling of excessive prizes for average horses who are being used by TV?

 

(2) Is the basic fact that the quantity and small fields that deliver(s) in the UK, creating horses who rarely race in big field races with the true pace that creates, as opposed to Irish horses who rarely race in fields of less than 15-16 runners in handicaps which create genuine pace. This particularly manifests itself at big Meetings like Cheltenham.  

It's very similar to "high press" high intensity now mentioned in Football and "bazball" or similar in Cricket...no rest full on from pillar to post.