ABOUT 18 months ago, a well-known English trainer suggested that British jumps races ought to be reserved for British horses and while the reaction to that notion was thankfully one of ridicule, there have been attempts made to limit the scale of Irish involvement in racing across the water, and I did wonder what the landscape would look like if the Irish-trained horses were turned away en masse at Liverpool, Fishguard and Stranraer.

It’s tempting to joke that without the Irish runners, the Champion Hurdle would have been won by a 144-rated handicapper, beating one rated 150, but that really did happen, and the proposer of the blanket ban on Irish horses would no doubt have found the victory of Golden Ace one of the highlights of the season. In a way, that’s true, and few would begrudge Jeremy Scott’s mare her unlikely triumph in March.

The thing about shocks, though, is that what makes them headline news is their paucity. If all the big races produced shock results, where’s the fun in the surprise? The Champion Hurdle was a race in which it seemed that almost anything could happen, and almost everything did, with the result requiring the falls of two of the leading chances and the complete capitulation of a third. Such a sequence of events hardly ever happens, and when it does, it is sensational, and racing benefits from a little sensation.

In the history books

To reiterate that point, the 1967 Grand National and the 1990 Gold Cup are races which will be talked about for as long as racing is a subject for fireside conversation, and hardly anyone thinks it’s a shame that the results went the way they did. We love the occasional fluke, and we’ll never forget the names of Foinavon and Norton’s Coin, but if races are being won by horses unconsidered in ante-post markets just because most of the leading contenders can’t run, then their place in our affections are much less secure.

Imagine how dreadfully dull British racing would be if it were only British-trained horses who could compete.

It isn’t hard – look back at Cheltenham in March and see if you can name the winners. Even the biggest anorak might struggle to remember who was first home in the home team for some of those races.

Here’s a reminder – look at this list of the best of British in championship or sub-championship races and see how thrilled you would be if these were the official heroes of Cheltenham 2025.

The table is meant to be a bit of trivia for the obsessives, but it can be looked at another way. Those who feel that British racing is being suffocated by the participation of foreign runners (the results and number of runners imagines the races with only British-based trainers being represented) would presumably be happier with the results than with what actually happened.

Amusing as it is to imagine an alternative Cheltenham run under a blockade of Irish runners, the reality is that such a scenario would be disastrous.

At least there was each-way betting in the Brits-only Hunter Chase, but an average of four and a half runners per race is a damning indictment of the depth of talent at championship level in traditionally strong English strongholds.

Let’s be blunt, the real problem with British racing isn’t too much unfair opposition, but a total lack of depth at the higher levels of the sport, despite the fact that the acquisition of talent is effectively a level playing field.

Trainers who complain that they can’t compete with the buying power of Mullins and Elliott in particular should review their recruitment policy, and could ponder the question that if Willie’s spoiling it for everyone else, why are other Irish trainers doing better in relative terms than they were 30 or 40 years ago.

The diversity of Irish success at Cheltenham is rarely discussed, but is a fact that needs explaining. Trainers like Henry de Bromhead, Gavin Cromwell and Barry Connell have had to deal with the overwhelming strength of the Willie Mullins stable, but they’ve done so by adapting and digging in to get those Grade 1 winners at recent festivals.

Adapt and overcome

British trainers can also adapt to a period of wider Irish dominance, but not if their response to increased competition is to look for ways of levelling the playing field by weakening the opposition. It needs to be pointed out that most trainers are determined to keep getting better at what they do and are determined to strengthen their talent bases to achieve greater success.

Unfortunately, the calls for protectionist policies to bolster British success tend to be echoed widely even if coming from a small minority.

What most professionals understand is that real levelling up requires a positive response to competition which leads to higher standards. In other words, when the going gets tough, the tough need to get going. Otherwise, well - tough.

It’s not just about challenging the participants to be better, though. It’s interesting that the parochial attitudes to Irish trainers’ success over jumps isn’t really mirrored in the international world of flat racing and the fact that the perception of success in jump racing is often predicated on the results at just one race meeting is clearly a large part of the issue.

Royal Ascot is the closest equivalent that British flat racing has to the Cheltenham Festival but for all the pomp and fanfare, the meeting’s results are rarely responsible for crowning champions, and while that might upset those who run the meeting, it’s actually a really good thing for the sport.

The flat pattern has a truly international focus, meaning that even a race with the historical influence of the Derby is rarely seen as the culmination of a horse’s career in the way it might have been in the past.

If the classics were the be all and end all, then the way they are routinely captured by Aidan O’Brien would undoubtedly be the cause of the same sort of ill-feeling that is generated by the Irish/Closutton domination of Cheltenham.

There will still be those who moan, but nobody thinks for a second that keeping the Ballydoyle battalions on home soil is in any way good for the sport. In the same way, National Hunt racing needs to have a wider outlook, so that the results of one meeting in March are not the absolute arbiter of success or failure.

An obsession with increasing and subdividing the championship events at Cheltenham only makes the situation worse for those who want to see the dominance of one or two yards broken and there is a worry that the Cheltenham Festival is in danger of becoming a victim of its own success. Recent changes have helped – the National Hunt Chase has been saved from a fate worse than death by removing its graded status, for example, but more can be done.

It’s crucial for jump racing that Cheltenham is a success, but it’s not good for the sport that Cheltenham becomes bigger than everything else, and attempting to pile quality on quality doesn’t work for obvious reasons. Not only does the provision of more options dilute quantity, but it also has a negative effect on quality, as evidenced by some disappointing fields for Grade 1 contests in recent years.