Record Number of Irish trained winners at 2021 Festival?

Posted by me on Saturday on the main Horse Racing Forum:

The question that should be asked is why aren’t more British trainers looking at what Mullins in particular but also Henry DB and Elliott are doing and just copying as best they can. Plenty of expensive purchases being trained in Britain by the likes of Nicholls, Henderson, King, Pipe, Hobbs, Fry, Skelton, Williams et al but only Henderson heads to Cheltenham in March expecting a minimum of one Festival winner.

Too many “top” British trainers are set in their ways and unwilling or unable to adapt their acquisition strategies and training methods to keep pace with the leading Irish trainers.

Gordon has been very quiet
Willie banging them in six weeks before the festival.

Interesting that last year only honeysuckle followed up dublin with a cheltenham win.

Willie is his usual uncertain self.

Rich very shrewd with pigalle.

Wtf is going on ?

Irishone - You are quite correct but the Grade 1 winners (Gaillard du Mesnil, Chacun Pour Soi, Energumene, Honeysuckle, Appreciate It and Monkfish) plus the bumper winner (Kilcruit) won as they liked. They'll have tougher workouts at home on the gallops.

I could see each of those following up at Cheltenham.

Grangee ran at Market Rasen on 16th January, Magic of Light ran at Ascot on 23rd January and as Jimnast has highlighted,  Never Do Nothing ran at Musselburgh on Saturday.

If Thomas Gibney can figure out how to ship a horse across the Irish Sea post Brexit then so can Henderson, Nicholls et al.  The trouble is they're creatures of habit - bad habits if they're compared with the likes of Mullins - and they stick to what they think they know.

Maybe the British triners do not believe their horses are good enough and dont want to go up aginst the Irish horses, unless they have to.

The british have an attitude
Towards Ireland and Irish people
Reflected on here regularly
Dont bring it up though
Cos' its a chip on your shoulder ....lol

Tiger Tiger posted the following on another thread:

"There are just six British-trained runners quoted at under 7-1 for all 28 races at the meeting. They are Shishkin, Epatante, Royale Pagaille, Bravemansgame, Paisley Park and Thyme Hill. And one of those, Royale Pagaille, 11-2 for the National Hunt Chase, seems more likely to take his chance in the Gold Cup."

Richard Forristal in the RP:

British trainers bemoaning Mullins 'freebies' should put horses on the boat

As a showcase for some of the best Irish horses, Dublin Racing Festival IV delivered in spades. From established stars like Chacun Pour Soi, Honeysuckle and Kemboy to the emerging forces of Monkfish, Kilcruit and Quilixios, the €1.85 million gala bore witness to a raft of spectacular performances.

Nonetheless, as Alan Sweetman pointed out on Tuesday, the ease with which so many of the Grade 1s were won – and the one-sided nature of the betting markets that foretold as much – is also a cause for interrogation.

Willie Mullins farmed nine winners at the meeting, which is just one shy of Gordon Elliott’s total tally at the DRF since its inception in 2018. The entirety of the remaining training population, with six winners, was outscored by 33 per cent.

Mullins’ prize-money haul of €875,000 in 48 hours amounted to more than what any other trainer – bar Elliott and Henry de Bromhead – has amassed in eight months of the season.

On the back of his plundering 13 victories at the track’s Christmas meeting, it is another emphatic illustration of how the champion trainer has re-energised his incredible hegemony.

Elliott was not his usual prolific self at the Christmas fixture. Over the four days, his yield was 4-43 for a nine per cent strike-rate and that dropped to just 1-28 for a 3.5 per cent return at the DRF.

With 136 winners – 11 more than Mullins – and over €2.6 million in prize-money, he is hardly having a bad season, but things haven’t clicked for him on some of the big days. Moreover, by bypassing the festival with Envoi Allen, Sir Gerhard and Zanahiyr, he was deprived of some heavy artillery.

John Oxx has been among those to warn of the detrimental long-term effect on racing’s appeal and political support if the same people are winning all the big races. No one is trying to rain on Mullins’ parade, but farming six Grade 1s with hardly a punch landed in opposition is not a healthy state of affairs for the sport as a whole.

Elliott's slightly subdued form fed into the lack of meaningful competition, and it is also worth noting one of the reasons the DRF was not factored into Envoi Allen’s schedule in the first place was because of his concerns over the potential for unsuitably fast ground. That is a serious issue that dogged the previous two festivals, with Elliott shedding his usual diplomatic reticence 12 months ago to declare that “it’s not good enough”.

This time, the weather just about ensured the conditions on the chase course weren’t a problem last weekend – just about. However, like Elliott with Envoi Allen, you could nominate others who may have factored the meeting out of their plans just in case. Ruby Walsh and Davy Russell have also argued this needs to be addressed, but nobody knows quite what the solution is. In the absence of a better idea, maybe it’s time to consider artificially irrigating the chase track in the summer when watering the Flat course.

There was also not one British runner at Leopardstown. This is an issue we have grumbled about in previous years, and there were extenuating circumstances this time with Brexit and Covid. Nonetheless, there have been Irish runners at Market Rasen, Ascot, Musselburgh and Wolverhampton over the past few weeks. The extra cost, logistics, bureaucracy and travel restrictions make the whole thing a bit of an ordeal, but it is hardly insurmountable.

Nicky Henderson has spoken of watching the DRF between his fingers from behind the couch, but he spends a lot of time lamenting the race schedule and the Irish Gold Cup, with no Al Boum Photo or A Plus Tard, would surely have been a neat fit for Champ.

We have been down this road before, but, from a fan’s perspective, it would certainly have been preferable to a simulated three-mile outing at some unidentified racecourse.

If Johnny Levins can send one to Musselburgh on Sunday for a Pertemps qualifier, the mind boggles as to why Champ – nine years of age and battle-hardened – could not come the other way for a €200,000 Grade 1. And if Newbury falls this weekend, Henderson might be sorry he was not a little more imaginative in his planning.

Likewise, on Nick Luck’s daily podcast on Wednesday, Dan Skelton expressed his frustration that Mullins’ horses accumulate invaluable experience in uncompetitive Grade 1s en route to Cheltenham, suggesting they don’t have to empty the tank while effectively being conditioned for the festival. He described them as “freebies”. Maybe there is some merit in his theory, but the same observation applies. Put your horse on the boat and come and keep them honest.

We always hear how the shocking prize-money levels in Britain is such a problem, yet Champ will run for a purse of £45,000 on Saturday instead of a €200,000 pot last Sunday. That’s a matter of choice, and we have illustrated before with case studies of Jodami, Spirit Leader and Un De Sceaux that a cross-channel venture close to Cheltenham is not a fearsome assignment that will ruin a horse’s festival hopes.

Jimmy FitzGerald, Fred Rimell, Martin Pipe, Neville Callaghan, Barry Hills, Jim Old, Peter Beaumont, John Upson, David Barons, Robert Alner and Paul Nicholls all embraced the challenge in the past and duly achieved marquee Leopardstown successes.

Henderson and Skelton are among the few trainers with the ammunition to mount some resistance, as Skelton described it, to Mullins, so the onus is on them to do so. Otherwise bemoaning the race programme or prize-money rings hollow, and Mullins’ domination will continue to perpetuate as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Or set up in Ireland. Even Elliot with the patronage of Gigginstown and others was playing 2nd fiddle to Mr Mullins. Mr Skelton is 2 leagues below, at least.

I think that the problem is that there far too many grade one chases which makes for far too many uncompetitive chases.
Imagine if Arkle had the opportunities they have now, he would never had been out of a canter. Mind you that was true anyway when he was conceding 35 lbs but that’s not the point.
Champ has been starved of opportunities said Henderson. Well he had the big chase at Doncaster, but the poor lamb would have had to concede some weight! What Henderson wants is a nice penalty kick.
Jump racing has the potential to be just a gigantic sport, but people will get sick of watching 4/1 on shots cantering round and commentators swooning when a horse that should be giving 2 stone away wins impressively at level weights. The hapless idiots in charge of the sport will do nothing to address this problem(1.01).

"Uncompetitive grade ones"

Any of those that ran in THE gold cup last week would put it up to anything skeltons got.

As for that press report
Sweetman is at the behest of coolmore
Never a bad word printed about them
In the Irish part of the racing post
Enough said ?

Prestbury Cup Latest odds...

Eire 1/4
Great Britain and Engurlandshire 7/2
Tie 13/2

“But I do do do....RETURN OF THE MACK....”

Yes of course Irishone, but even my great Uncle tried to do something during the seventies to start off the challenge again against them. My first abiding memory of the festival is screaming at Monksfield to hang on against Sea Pigeon and the late great Tommy Carberry and Tied Cottage. Still, we have come a long way since those leaner times that were quite soul destroying. I mean it’s like the British bookies are like going to be submissive to the dom this year and just get whipped...what price we don’t even get ga Prestbury Park Trophy presentation this year....oh I am afraid we have not time to make the presentation as little Tarkers has burned his bran muffin at nursery cooking class and Jemima just simply cannot bear to watch the Irish celebrate....

There is likely to be a problem for willie and gordon with regards this years prestbury cup. Horses generally like to know the people around them. Both trainers will be cutting back on who they allow to travel this year.  The problem is the 14 day isolation they have to undergo in Ireland after the event. As most of the staff do at least three a day, there is going to be a lack of available staff if they all go over.  So some of their Cheltenham horses will be without the people who are around them everyday. For thoroughbreds this is even more unsettling.

More vaccinations less deaths Irish horses already travelling but it's not certain if they can travel WAFLOB and a lot can go wrong in novice chases they're gonna wipe the floor with us ffs I've never seen anything like this in my lifetime and as some others have written top Irish trainers have moved forward with owners prepared to pay but want them housed in Elliott or Mullins stables

I might do but as I already have a bet on Allmankind, that would increase the my risk. My choice of the other two was heavily influenced by the possibility that the horses might not run and I laid them some time back. The more fences, the more chance of a fall. bad error or interference although the Arkle has had its share of favourites falling.

Take a bow Willie Mullins. Where you lead other jumps  trainers refuse to follow.

Not content with sending horses to the USA, France, Japan and Australia to plunder top prizes you’ve now landed a £0.5m pot in Saudi Arabia.

Time for top British jumps trainers to sit up and take note.

I don’t doubt that Mullins’ willingness to push boundaries and pursue excellence will be richly rewarded at Cheltenham in a little more than 3 weeks time

Halcyon days...so looking forward to Ed Chamberlain and the rest of the ITV team saying we have not got time I am afraid to show the presentation of the Prestbury Cup to the Irish as little Jemima is crying that her two pound win bet on Great Britain and Engurlandshire  got facked. We now go to Chipping Norton to see little Tarkers and his best friend Hugh make organic bran muffins.

I guess the answer to my original question is “no” if the authorities ban Elliott from running his horses in light of the “big game hunter” photo of him sitting on a dead horse.