dominance of ireland.

Time has come to add Joseph O Brien to the list.
Two becomes three.
Domination to continue for the foreseeable future.

irish dominance????

only won one of the championship races last year

Good point there lads.
Can you just remind of the name of the horse that won the last on the Thursday of festival 2018?
Just remember there was something significant about him at the time but can't for the life of me remember his name or the reason the result was all that important.

Having owners like Gigginstown and Ricci has made the main difference i would think.

No one is saying Irish trainers aint good at their job, but theres no doubt the Irish have more winners since Gigginstown have been around.
And to a lesser extent Ricci,who has provided Mullins with a fair few big races at the festival.

That Chip is rearing its ugly head again Irish!!

Most successful trainers in the  Queen Mother Champion Chase


6
Tom Dreaper IRE (1960 & 1961 Fortria, 1964 Ben Stack, 1966 Flyingbolt, 1969 Muir, 1970 Straight Fort)

OOOPPPSS …..

Not really sure what yer point is Irish....we all know Ireland have had great trainers over the years.....great horses too.

Quiet what thats got to do with Ireland having more winners since Giggintown came on the scene,i have no idea,

The worse thing that can happen is total Irish dominance
Anything above 20 winners is punchestown on tour
Fair play to hendo for waving the flag
But I can't see anyone coming through

On the other hand the BHA couldn't have a better time than to change the rules with BREXIT looming
The BHA have sternly disliked the idea of the friendly rivalry becoming a total stuffing each year
Last minute drug checking, flu boosters and going propaganda aside, the odd winner what
was O K  until Willie and Gordon took over and now Joseph emerges
It was OK while we were the greatest supporters and losing.
Now we are the dominant force we have chips on our shoulders, very little worthwhile form to go on and our preparations are bizarre .

Funny that.

over the last few years we've seen that Ireland have dominated the big races at the festival


Ok lets take THE big races last 10 years

Gold Cup....7-3 to Brits
Champion Hurdle....5-5
Champion Chase....7-3 to Brits
Stayers Hurdle....7-3 to Brits

Irish dominance!!???

Impossible on the other hand , just talks a load of bollux

you lost all credibility
When you vowed to leave the forum
If found won the arc
Still here ignoring.....

You would never have got what you got today a few years ago,
i think that has made all the difference,every detail however minute is now taken into consideration.

Galway this morning put all their fences"back to front" in a bid to replicate Cheltenham,even the students night background noise at Limerick racecourse was turned up to to 120 decibels, so fair deuce to them also.

Several horses including the Gold Cup fav took advantage, i know Newbury tried to do similar in a bid to keep up, but it is very flat.

Shame to have to block anyone on this forum, especially Iroshone who has contributed some good stuff over the years,  but appears to have turned into a flag-waving, small-man syndrome bore.

Someone let me know if he drops the politics and the nationalism and gets back to just focusing on the racing

It is such a shame. This forum could be such a positive and constructive vehicle to help people that share the same passion beat the real enemy which are the bookies. Instead it is letting a few hijack it and turn it into a farce. This thread is a complete nonsense as is the PP thread. A total distraction and achieving absolutely nothing of any value. There are some genuinely smart people that make contributions but more and more they seem to be slipping into the background or dropping out altogether. Children that play up just to get attention eventually give up if they are consistently ignored.

Think the English trainers are starting to catch up with the Irish in terms of both quality of animal coming into the yard and "preparation".

I think the Festival has become a better spectacle with higher quality on show as a direct consequence of recent Irish domination. The success of Elliott and Mullins is compelling British trainers to raise their game. Thus far only Henderson and to a lesser extent Tizzard and Nicholls have made any serious attempt to respond. It's become dispiriting to see the likes of Pipe, King and Hobbs (in particular) struggle at recent Festivals and I'm still waiting for the new generation of bright young things - Harry Fry, Ben Pauling, Warren Greatrex et al - to emerge as serious heavyweights in their own right but that hasn't lessened the entertainment value.

This year with the Mullins yard seemingly under a cloud and notwithstanding the emergence of Joseph O'Brien I think the British trainers will outperform expectations but whether that's a start of something or just a blip only time will tell.

It would certainly be nice to see the British trainers win a few more of the handicaps because in recent years the stats indicate that Irish trained runners have been significantly advantaged by discrepancies between the Irish and British handicap systems which the British handicapper has struggled to grapple with.

I doubt Irish trainers are inherently better than the English ones. Although ones like Joseph for example benefit from connection to a master trainer like Aidan, makes a difference, plus getting access to high-class horse flesh like Sir Erec doesn't harm. Sometimes it goes in cycles. Paul Nicholls was very flat for a while, but now seems to be coming back.

will be interesting to see how this festival pans out.

Think it will be very close re both countries with total winners this year,agree definitely a resurgence with UK horses compared to last couple of years.

Just on the point of handicaps,didn't the Irish run to their own mark up til about 10 years ago? They coudn't buy a winner then though tbf it was pre Elliott and a smaller Mullins yard.

The general rule of thumb seems to rise them 6lbish though that is at the handicappers discretion(generally fair and consistent imo).
Always a few trainers will think they are hard done( N Meade maybe in the Coral Cuo with De Name Escapes Me,2nd in last hurdle bt 2.5 L off 138,raised 5lb by Irish handicapper but sees another 7lb on top, bit harsh but considering horses like Ballymoy and Old Guard have a similar mark maybe not so bad,conversely the UK handicapper seems to have done him a favour by rising him 7lb if he takes up his Kim Muir engagement as it will probably see him get in, some race btw with just 6lb between the top 31 horses at this stage.)