LET’S start with some figures about Irish-trained horses in Cheltenham handicaps. Of the 928 horses entered at the initial stage this year, 340 were trained in Ireland which comes out at 36.6%, the highest figure percentage-wise in a decade, and likely an all-time high. It’s a big number, even allowing for some of those holding multiple entries, and has come a long way from the 18.3% of initial entries back in 2011.

That upward trend has been reflected in the number that actually run. 2019 was the first year when over 30% of the Cheltenham handicap fields were trained in Ireland, those figures having been in the low-20s (%) for the early part of the 2010s. Success, it seems, breeds success.