IT is difficult to figure out why the Prestbury Cup, or the BetBright Cup, the ‘competition’ between Ireland and Britain at Cheltenham, is getting such bad press.

It is true that the lines of nationality can be blurred in horse racing. Remember Don’t Push It, 2010 Grand National hero? Owned by an Irishman, trained by an Irishman, ridden by an Irishman, wearing green, white and gold, yet he went down as a British Grand National winner?

It’s not like England playing Ireland in soccer or rugby, when one team puts on white jerseys and the other puts on green jerseys. (Although sometimes the lines of nationality can be blurred in football too.)

Racing is not a sport that lends itself easily to the team phenomenon. See how the Shergar Cup has struggled to progress from interesting novelty event? But the Ireland/Britain phenomenon is a phenomenon that has defined Cheltenham through the ages. It has been prevalent at the Cheltenham Festival since Vincent O’Brien first sent Cottage Rake and Hatton’s Grace and Castledermot over in the 1940s and 1950s.

Without the Irish element, it is probable that the Cheltenham Festival as it exists today would be but a pale imitation of the behemoth that it has become.

You couldn’t have had a BetBright Cup in the late 1980s or early 1990s. Or you could have had it, but it would have been 17-1 or 18-0 to the British, Galmoy the Irish Messi. But we have reached a point now at which Irish trainers as a collective can legitimately expect to have close to the same number of winners as British trainers.

You can argue that there is no such thing as Irish trainers as a collective. That if Min gets beaten by a short-head in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, it makes no difference to Willie Mullins whether he has been beaten by Altior or by Supasundae. That he doesn’t go home and think, at least we were beaten by an Irish-trained horse.

That said, there is a genuine willingness among racing fans here for Irish-trained horses to do well. The bias that a bet can engender notwithstanding, there is an unmistakable interest here in how Irish horses fare. And if Irish trainers as a collective (such as it exists) could have more winners than the collective of British trainers at the Cheltenham Festival, a home game for Britain, well that would be something in which to take patriotic pride, wouldn’t it?

Going, going, gone ...

CHELTENHAM got 24mm of rain on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, and Simon Claisse said that, with the forecast dry spell, the ground on the opening day would be a combination of soft and good to soft. Just shows you how quickly the track drains, and it would not be at all surprising if the good to soft parts were more prevalent than the soft parts.

By comparison, Wincanton got 27mm of rain and had to abandon Thursday’s meeting. Stratford got 43mm of rain and the Avon burst its banks. Monday’s meeting is off. You will have to find another medium through which to risk half your Cheltenham betting bank. It’s now Stratford-under-Avon.