MY main takeaway from Cheltenham 2026 was an obvious one: Willie Mullins confirming himself the best trainer around.

It was not so much his number of winners at the meeting, eight this year, but the way they got there, many of them excellent training performances.

His two Tuesday winners were covered last week but Wednesday started with King Rasko Grey landing the Turners, leaving behind a piece of Dublin Racing Festival form that otherwise didn’t work out at Cheltenham and showing that few can improve them like Mullins.

More broadly, Mullins was the only trainer that managed to get the DRF form to work out.

Of the 56 horses that ran at the DRF and turned up at Cheltenham, four of them won, all trained by Mullins, and he added two more places as well.

Gordon Elliott had his best DRF yet in 2026, but his runners there going on to Cheltenham were 0/14 with one place; hopefully this will not cause him to alter his approach next year as he added so much to the DRF and the testing ground there was likely a big factor in causing some runners to underperform subsequently.

Clear reasons

Kitzbuhel became the first Kauto Star Novice Chase winner to follow up in the Brown Advisory, 23 having tried and failed before (thanks Gaultstats.com) and there are clear reasons for that record, the two races being totally different tests.

Perhaps this year’s Brown Advisory was more of a speed test with the ground akin to the typical Kempton surface, but Kitzbuhel was coming off an unseat too.

The return to form of the Brown Advisory runner-up was another notable training performance, Final Demand having underwhelmed at the DRF but did everything right at Cheltenham, just beaten by a better horse on the day.

He may not be the superstar that was predicted but this was a step in the right direction and slower ground should suit better.

Like Kitzbuhel, Il Etait Temps was coming off a non-completion going into the Champion Chase, and a nasty one at that, falling two out in the Clarence House having never gone with his usual fluency. He was right back to form here on a track he had hitherto appeared to dislike. Even allowing for the race falling apart in front of him, and a fine Paul Townend ride, this was a top piece of training.

Triumph Hurdle

The next Mullins winner came in the Friday opener, Apolon De Charnie winning the Triumph on stable debut, a feat that may appear routine after Poniros last year but was anything but. He too got a fine ride, Patrick Mullins playing his hand later than anyone.

And then there was Gaelic Warrior in the Gold Cup. I am reminded of a comment one judge passed after he won the Aintree Bowl last year that went along the lines of ‘I would really have fancied him if the ground was softer and the trip was shorter and he was in form…’

All of that was spot on at the time, the horse having missed Cheltenham and having the potential to go the wrong way, but since stepping up in trip he has added consistency to his obvious brilliance, his form figures since then reading:111321.

Racing keen seems not matter which is a rare trait, and he was still on the bridle between the final two fences in the Gold Cup, a real wow moment in the biggest race of the meeting.

THE one bum note Mullins hit over the week was on Thursday in his complaints about the ground and the participation of Fact To File.

Racecourses do not always get the going right, both in terms of the surface they provide and how they describe it, but Cheltenham were in a difficult spot here after a wet winter and with rain forecast into Friday.

It was a touch unbecoming of the leading trainer to criticise the ground, especially as his choice of words contained a tone of threat about future participation, akin to the team that has won the league for the last five years complaining about the pitch.

Perhaps this sort of attitude is what makes him the trainer he is, but complaints from other trainers were hard to find, apart from Martin Hassett at the Curragh on Sunday who also felt conditions were too fast for his runner in the Champion Bumper, and there was only three ground-related non-runners on the Thursday card, just one of them trained by Mullins.

After a long and wet winter where most races have been run on heavy ground, it seems reasonable to allow the better ground types an opportunity on their favoured surface without watering it back too much.

PUNTERS looking for an edge will no doubt have been pouring over the Cheltenham replays to spot horses for the remaining spring festivals and beyond, but it there is a degree of difficulty in figuring out these races that there might not be elsewhere.

Not only were the races themselves complex with many big fields, but there are also more eyeballs on them than there might be on a more typical meeting, like the Curragh on Sunday just gone, so visual judges might need to dig deeper for eyecatchers.

Spotting that Jump Allen was unlucky in the Martin Pipe or that Koktail Divin didn’t stay in the Brown Advisory may be of limited use when many people can see the same and it does seem like the type of angle that will be in the market next time.

One possible contrarian angle is to consider the physical condition of the horse beforehand rather than their actual performance in the race.

I am no paddock judge but do enjoy listening to the presenters and analysts on track when they talk about this, and Timeform had someone on the ground in the parade ring at Cheltenham that fed into their post-race analysis.

This analyst mentioned that Talk The Talk was ‘on this toes beforehand and not particularly taking the eye’ which seemed to presage a listless performance, while Romeo Coolio was described as ‘carrying little condition’ before a disappointing run in the Brown Advisory, Jack Kennedy saying afterwards that he ran flat. Both horses had busy seasons before Cheltenham and ran on testing ground at the DRF.

Another possible angle with the paddock judgements is the physiques of the horses in novice hurdles with a view to going chasing or staying over smaller obstacles.

Eyecatcher

In the Supreme, for instance, Mighty Park was described as ‘a rangy sort who is every inch a chaser in the making’ while El Cairos is ‘not the most imposing.’

In the other novice hurdles, visual eyecatcher Soldier Reeves (fourth in the Turners) was described as one that could ‘flourish over fences’ so he ticks two boxes while in the Triumph, Maestro Conti was ‘one of the best physical specimens in the field.’

This method is hardly flawless, as small horses do make good chasers and bigger horses can prove too awkward, but it may provide a different angle into an otherwise heavily analysed set of races.