THE publication of the 2020/2021 Anglo-Irish Jumps Classification passed almost unnoticed this week. In the great days of old, this was a glittering occasion, in London, when we gathered at the end of the National Hunt season to crown the champions.

Now it is a Zoom conference, a set of tables and little or no great fuss. However, you can read the comments of the Irish and British handicappers on page 17, and instead I will take this opportunity to state the obvious, given the season that has just passed.

Irish-trained horses swept the board in all three categories within the chasing and hurdling divisions. Only Gavin Cromwell, with Flooring Porter, encroached on total domination by the powerful teams of Willie Mullins and Henry de Bromhead.

Crown jewels

The latter secured two of the crown jewels of jump racing, Minella Indo and Honeysuckle claiming the Gold Cup and Champion Hurdle respectively at Cheltenham, while another star in the yard, Bob Olinger, narrowly missed out on being leading novice hurdler, eclipsed by Mullins’ Appreciate It.

The master of Closutton dominated the season when it came to depth of quality runners, and he trains Chacun Pour Soi, officially the best chaser in these islands. What an achievement it is to see a mare sitting proudly at the top of the hurdling division, Honeysuckle being the darling of racing.

Twenty chasers achieved a rating of 165 or better, while five of the top six on ratings were trained in Ireland. The British-trained runners in this rating band number 11, two more than the Irish. Willie Mullins has five of our nine, including the brilliant Allaho, Henry de Bromhead chips in with a pair, while the late Presenting Percy is one of the remaining Irish duo.

Hurdlers

When it comes to the hurdlers, there are 34 who earned a rating of 155 or more, and this time the Irish-trained performers outnumber the British 18 to 16. Once again, five of the top six run from here, Willie Mullins being responsible for three of them.

There was a little more of a spread in this division, though Mullins was clearly the strongest with seven of the 18 Irish runners rated 155 or better. Henry de Bromhead and Denise Foster had four each, with Gavin Cromwell, Noel Meade and Matthew Smith having one representative each.

On the breeding front, the 54 horses comprising this group of horses consisted of 24 French-breds, 20 bred in Ireland, seven in Britain, two in Germany and one in Spain.