YOU can understand Irish owners’ and trainers’ frustrations with the Cheltenham handicap anomalies. They have been well documented by now.

De Name Escapes Me, for example, was given a chase rating of 139 by the British handicappers, 7lb higher than his chase rating in Ireland, and a hurdles rating of 150, also 7lb higher than his Irish rating over hurdles.

Speaker Connolly was given a chase rating of 139 in Britain, 7lb higher than his Irish mark. Off You Go was given a hurdles rating of 156, 5lb higher than his Irish mark.

Whisperinthebreeze, rated 139 over fences in Ireland after winning at Leopardstown last time off a mark of 130, was pushed through the 145 barrier in Britain, thereby rendering him ineligible for both the Close Brothers Chase and the Kim Muir at the Festival.

There are two major sources of frustration. Firstly, it’s the not knowing. The fact that Irish trainers do not know what rating the British handicappers have awarded their horses after they have run.

It would make much more sense if the British handicappers regularly published the ratings that they keep for Irish-trained horses.

And secondly, at Cheltenham, or at any British racecourse, Irish-trained horses can meet on terms that are very different to the terms on which they meet at an Irish racecourse.

For example, if De Name Escapes Me were to run in the Kim Muir, he would be conceding 2lb to Measureofmydreams.

By contrast, if the pair of them were set to line up in tomorrow’s Leinster National at Naas, Measureofmydreams would be conceding 5lb to De Name Escapes Me.

That makes no sense.

Surely a system of handicapping can be determined that stretches across the jurisdictions – there are only two after all – that is both sensible and transparent.