WE have an early Easter this year which means the Irish Grand National is run before Aintree, though such timing is hardly unusual with Fairyhouse starting before April 4th four times since 2015.

As with most National Hunt festivals, Willie Mullins has been the trainer to follow at the Easter Festival, winning 28% of all races at the fixture since 2015. In that period, he is 62 runners from 363 runners for a 17.3% strikerate and his runners over fences have been most profitable to follow with 22 winners from 106 runners for a level stakes profit of 16.3 points.

Gordon Elliott is next best with 21 winners, though it took 307 runners to hit that mark, a relatively low strikerate of 6.8%.

Elliott has been saying all winter that he has no chance of being champion trainer but if he is to pull off an unlikely upset, he will need a big Fairyhouse. He has struggled for winners in March, not just at Cheltenham but at home, his jumps runners 9/119 last month, but has kept some horses fresh for this meeting.

At a recent launch for this meeting, Gavin Cromwell mentioned his poor record in the Irish Grand National and that comment applies to the meeting overall; since 2015, he is 3/92 at the Easter Festival with 17 places.

That said, his horses are in good form lately, many running well at Cheltenham and he has landed decent prizes at home with The Lovely Man, Coole Cafe and Born Braver. Of the smaller yards, the three Ms are names to keep in mind.

Tony Martin is 11/88 here since 2015, albeit most of those winners came early in the period. Dermot McLaughlin is 5/36 here, including a pair of Irish Grand National winners, while Colm Murphy is 3/17 and has several likely types this year.

Working out the value of Cheltenham form, and how it will translate to Fairyhouse, is one of the big challenges for punters over these next three days.

Overall, horses that had their last run at the most recent Cheltenham Festival are 31 winners from 327 runners at the meeting since 2015, albeit with a sizeable level stakes loss of 144.07 points.

Most of those winners came in the years when Easter was late, however. As mentioned above, Easter has been earlier than this year four times since 2015. In those years, the total winners that came directly on from Cheltenham were one in 2024 (meeting began on March 20th), three in 2021 (April 3rd), four in 2018 (April 1st) and zero in 2016 (March 27th).

Mullins has had the cure for the Cheltenham hangover in this time, training 21 of the 31 Easter winners that came directly on from Cheltenham, but other yards have struggled, just 10/208 in that period for a strikerate of 4.8% and they face the added challenge of the tight turnaround this year.

AIDAN O’Brien was in full flow when discussing the potential of Albert Einstein early this spring, commenting that ‘we thought all our two-year-olds were no good last year [because] he was so far ahead of them’, that crop producing eight Group 1 wins in 2025.

The trainer also said that Albert Einstein would be training in a unique way: ‘We’re going to leave him asleep the whole time, not going to ask him anything’, the implication being that natural ability would be enough to get him by.

With these words in mind, expectations were high ahead of the Gladness Stakes on Saturday and he proved a let-down, finishing in mid-division and beaten by four and a half lengths.

But this was hardly any terrible run, especially for a horse having his first outing in 307 days, and with plenty wrong otherwise. It was his first try beyond six furlongs, having looked fast at two, while he was running on ground much softer than he had run on before.

He was a three-year-old coming up against his elders, something his trainer rarely does at this stage of the year, and he had to come from off the pace on a day when all eight of the winners raced forward, by the halfway stage.

Albert Einstein did not shape like a blatant non-stayer in the Gladness, keeping on again late, but one can see the appeal of going sprinting. A defeat at Newmarket over a trip too far might lead to him playing catch-up with three-year-old sprinters that have been trained for the Commonwealth Cup all along, whereas now O’Brien has the option of a more traditional sprint campaign from early on, with races like the Committed Stakes at Navan and the Lacken Stakes at Naas making sense.

Of course, there was a winner in the Gladness on Saturday and that was the terrific Big Gossey, winning for the ninth time at the Curragh on his 50th start there. He may be pushing on, but the spirit remains strong.

The runner-up, East Hampton, was one of very few horses to get involved from off the pace on the card and has an interesting profile, connections having gone to 210,000gns to keep him at the Tattersalls Autumn Horse-in Training Sale last October.

He was strong in the market here, so presumably was fit and he did win the Madrid first time up last season, but even so shaped well, travelling powerfully in rear before being switched to the near side, making up plenty of ground late despite having nothing to bring him into the race.

East Hampton has a fine record around seven furlongs but perhaps a well-run six on slow ground would suit him even better with how he travelled here; he had one go at the trip last season on Irish Derby day but that was in a steadily run race which seemed not to suit.

RACING in a prominent position was a big help throughout last Saturday’s Curragh card, a tailwind playing its part. One race where they went steady to boot was in the 10-furlong maiden and while Shaihaan ran out a comfortable winner, there was promise from the two Johnny Murtagh-trained placed horses.

The runner-up Latin America cost 280,000gns as a yearling and finishing off strongly and the third-placed Asakir was just as promising. He was well-backed on the show, suggesting there was not much between him and his stablemate, and he did best of those to come from off the pace, travelling as well as any while also quite green.

Murtagh also started off a promising type, Abbey Actress, in the mile handicap earlier in the card.

That was another race dominated by two that raced forward but Abbey Actress did well to finish third from off the pace, short of room early in the straight too. She appeals as the type to step forward from this and can be competitive in a higher grade.